PATRIOTISM AND EMPIRE. (Third Edition.) STUDIES IN RELIGIOUS FALLACY. AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH POLITICS. WRECKING THE EMPIRE. A SHORT HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. PAGAN CHRISTS Studies in Comparative Hierology.
:

Lassen on the Hercules of Megasthenes. Criticism of Tiele. Wilson's position. Upheld by Weber and Senart. Bala Rama's characteristics. His close correspondence with the Hercules of Megasthenes. Rama Chandra

.....
;

1G1

§

9.

Weber's Theory.

His general attitude
tion of Christianity
§
;

;

Theory

of early

Greek influence and imitaConcrete details
-

Doctrine of Faith

164

10.

Pagan
1.

Parallels.
; ;

Criticism of Weber's positions The Kansa Myth Problem of Christian Origins Virgin and Child derived from Isis and Horus De Rossi on the Catacomb Madonnas Pre-Christian Child-carrying
; ; ;

Dramatic ritual in early Christism. Virgin. Wilson's.
Cognate terms.
Ritual. The Magi.
Connection of Kansa legend with legend of Cyrus. Dramatic ritual in -191 Krishnaism and Christism
§
13. Maya and Mary. Anthony's Day Myth derived from Eitual Krishnaite and Roman Festivals The " Swinging " Festival
. and others. Dramatic origin of the Eucharist and the The Liturgies. Antiquity of the Babe-Sun-God. Ion. The Mass.
Day
-
205
14. Bas-reliefs in the Catacombs. Christopher.
CONTENTS
Name-day in Hercules-worship NameBaptizing on Epiphany Abyssinian usage. The Christian legend. Horus.
The Myth
of St.
. The Birth-Festival and the Puranas Weber's explanation accepted Purana legends not necessarily late Birthdays of Gods astrological Krishna and Star Eohini Krishna Nativity in July Significance of this Birthday of Horos in July Hindu Festivals
a Pre-Christian Festival
.
. The Pastophoroi. Testimonies of Clarkson. The myths of Sargon.
Cart.
V irgins
The Seven Brother Martyrs. and Zeus.
.
Indian and Christian Religious Drama. Images in Christism and Krishnaism.
Mattu Pongal and St. The Symbolic Ass. The " Taxing " Journey.
Weber and Senart on the Krishna
of Dionysos."
" The ToyBuddhist testimony.
. Parallel legends. and Manger Myth preChristian in Egypt. General
The name Christophoroi.
. The Mythological River. The Cave motive. Dangers run by the Divine Child. The sacramental eating of baked images.
The Seven Myth. The Coat of Many Colours. The text in Habakkuk.
.
. The Birth in a Cave.
.
St. Ox and Ass symbolic.
. The Myth of the Seven Gates -
180
§
12.
.
The
principle of Eating the God. Greek Mysteries. Virgin-Myth ritualized in Egypt. The Messianic Cyrus and Jesus.
.
vii
PAGE
day in
Mazdeism
.
use of such images.
. Myths concerning him. The Child Born on a Journey. Cows and Stable. Cow Myth in Mithraism. The Seven The Seven Priests Contact of Mithraism and Christism The Banquet of Seven Cox on the Seven Myth The Sleepers
1. Early Christian Religious Drama.
The Stable and Manger. Joseph and the Ass.
. Agni and Dionysos twice born. Horos born on Christmas Eve. Weber's View. Trollope. The Massacre of the Innocents. Evidence of St. . Christopher's
The Krishna
-
Myth and
§
the Christian. Proclus. and Hatch. The Christian Mysteries secret. Moses.
The Solar-Child Myth. Child.
..
.
166
§
11. Ox and ass. Devaki and Vasudeva.
The Manger-basket
Hermes. Persistence of the Pagan Drama -
215
§
15. Agni the Babe God in the Veda.
. The Child Speaking at Birth. The Cow-shed in the Krishna ritual and in Catacomb sculpture. The charge of Child-eating. Confucius miraculously born. Isis and the Virgin Cow. Child-carrying in Pagan Cults. The Seven Sleepers.
. Palmer. 2.

that. Well. its most prominent theological critics are industrious in misrepresenting its positions. or at least Semitism?
It
would
but
it
doubtless
be
Quixotic to
demand
of
a
professional
theologian that he should read a book through before condemning
it
. I have made shift to improve and expand it at the many points that had obtruded themselves for fuller consideration in the course of
And
there
is
my general reading. to
which he expressly referred. Professor A. reviewing the book Revue de I'histoire des religions. as large.
Why make
such journeys when. in order to indicate the possible
it
source of legendary elements in the canonical narrative. one could seek
without going past Palestine. wrote (p. latterly as formerly. I have seen no reason to give up any of its main contentions. That would involve the making of another. Wo have sought simply to sketch the impressions which he leaves upon us.—
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
OTHER
years.
For instance. 276)
:
in the
from us that wo should follow tho English author book to the other. Its main thesis is that the Christian writings cannot
be a main source of the Krishna myth a very different proposition.
Professor Keville had shaped his
criticism in entire ignorance of the thesis even of the second part. however. this is very far-fetched (bien loin et bien
It will not be exacted of his
from one end
forci). It is in particular the mythology and the legend of Krishna that he loves to present as one of the principal sources of the evangelical myth or myths. entitled
—
Gospel Myths.
avocations have
made
difficult
the due revision of this book
in the light of the manifold hierological discussion of the past ten
Since. the further reason for removing the " out-of-print " bar
under which the book has lately lain." he would have been deterred from his egregious
. in 1902. So far from representing the Krishna legend as one of the principal sources of the gospel myths. it suggests such a possibility or probability only in the case of one or two subsidiary details. and the growing interest in the central problem is expressed by the demand for a new edition. Keville.
seems
difficult so to differentiate
the moral standards of
the theologian and the layman as to entitle
sures without reading
it
him
to
frame his cen-
at
all. " The If Professor Keville had even glanced at the third part. In this respect neo-Unitarians and Trinitarians seem
to be at one.

D.. to " propose to confine " himself to " some
of of
my arguments. we may well ask why all borrowings from it should be so
incredible. He would doubtless remain convinced that the proposed derivations from nearer sources were fallacious but he could scarcely have retained his preliminary belief that the unread treatise declared the main source to be India. and that Christianity has itself borrowed from the impure cult of Krishna. the
indicated as a possible source of Christian
. But if such a world-wide religion as Christianity has been so arrant a borrower. the cult of Krishna in the story of Balder in Scandinavia may have been borrowed
to prove the originality of every other
from Christian sources. author of a primer on Religion : its Origin and Forms..D."
alleged case
Any layman will of course see that every must be considered on its merits and it is the dispassionate critical handling of the two cases named by him that has
. he would have found not a and only one or two qualified suggestions. of derivation of minor details from Krishnaism.—
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
Had he
xii
gone through it.
.
. that they seem willing to
and
of
While scholars
India or
of repute
much
form of religion. by the Rev.
single positive assertion. Canon J. and many ancient cults to have assimilated others (4) that the probability of a deluge-myth among the Mexicans being derived from missionary teaching is conceded and (5) that the argument contains this express avowal "as Christism borrowed myths of all kinds from Paganism. he would have been aware (l) that in this volume the Voluspa Saga is expressly admitted to have been coloured by
If
Krishna story is at one or two subsidiary points (3) that Buddhism is declared to have borrowed freely from Krishnaism. In point of fact. have suggested that. and other works of an ostensibly scientific cast. the rationalist angrily asserts that this is impossible. 151-2)
:
Their antagonism to Christianity
apologise for
is
seen in this. a manual on Comparative Theology. but to be unable to follow their arguments.
:
developed systems. MacCulloch.
(2)
that.
Canon MacCulloch had not been himself so angry as not only to feel that all his antagonists must be so.g. and thereupon proceeds to speak of me asa" school. e. A.
. in one section. A layman who is puzzled by the standards of critical morality revealed in such a performance as that of Professor Reville may perhaps find a gleam of elucidation in another deliverance.
myth only
." which he gives this among other details of description (pp. Canon MacCulloch does me " the honour. so it may pass on myths to less
Christian influences
. as
aforesaid.
Religion
[sic]
and the Historic Christ
" in the collection entitled
Religion and the Modern World (lectures delivered before the Glasgow
University Society of St. Ninian). 1909. he framed his indictment upon a wrong guess. In a lecture on " Comparative
allegation.

with their theological consciousness of special enlightenment.
reveals
Expanding experience in various fields of discussion more fully to some of us the difficulty of putting any
all
innovating theory of wide scope at
to rely at times
difficulty. Carpenter. Carpenter. A little of that useful endowment might seem sufficient to make him realize that human nature can be claimed by all of us. has not always been overcome in the
following pages. for instance. Dr. from a historical and variously heterodox point of view. disturbed by neologism.
The
professional theologian reproduces
phenomena
of the state of
war
:
he cannot refrain from
inventing charges against his opponent. Dr.
As regards scholarship.
in arousing conservative resistance. threateningly reminds us that " human nature " will not endure more than a certain amount of such disturbance though at other times his normal benevolence prompts him to credit with " mother wit " some of those who presume to impugn his creed.PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
reduced Canon MacCulloch
Professor
morals.
it
forcibly without seeming
more on emphasis than on reasoning. undertakes to decide difficult historical problems by telling heretics like myself that they do not
its
. I hope to have at least escaped the snare of misrepresentation. culture history is but a record of inadequacy in the absence of scientific " mother wit.
In the Appendix in which I have dealt with the arguments of of the leading writers who maintain.
great for the dialectic powers of distinguished exponents of conservative views in these matters. the contrary position to my own.
. Sanday and Dr. Frazer.
it
seems to be at times too
even Dr. like he transcends ordinary standards of literary It would thus appear that odium theologicum can operate
to-day very
the psychic
much
as of old. again.
Reville.
When
who
has
had some experience
can offer nothing better than a headlong petitio principii as ground for rejecting a theory that applies his own theoretic principles where he is not disposed to apply them. But I am not so presumptuous as to suppose that in the handling of this far-reaching controversy I have escaped fallacy or reached
some
finality.
And
this
may
well be. undertaking to dispose of unsettling doctrines by the oracular modes of the profession. and that in that field at least there can be no monopoly and no precedence.
On
the other hand. it is not surprising to find Dr. Sanday.
xiii
to a state of mind in which." Everyone of the thousand abandoned fortresses of theology had been walled by libraries of learning. Hence a somewhat obvious futility in undertakings to ban new theorists by blank imputations of incompetence.

that the
is
prepos-
and that prepossessions about
religions.
and the accompanying
inability to argue
without ascription of primary incapacity to the opponent.
For a century and a half he could not accept Copernicanism. is no argument for the truth of the new theory.
same furious confidence
superiority they pronounce the
but if anything can reasonably be held to demonstrate radical incompetence for the ascertaining of scientific truth.
individuals in point of delicacy
.
I trust. Frazer at a pinch resorts
same simple procedure. the old resistance was renewed in the case of geology and when that science. Carpenter's
faculty for weighing evidence than he will take Dr. it is precisely
right
. The open-minded reader. and lack the historical sense. Their worthless judgments are always held and delivered with the
When
and with the same sense of intellectual same verdicts of incapacity against each innovator in turn. by the exchange of such assurances.
xiv
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
the moaning of evidence.
would no more take as decisive
my estimate of
Dr. has been at its inception denounced as stupid standing hindrance to the right use of the historical sense
session
. In every age the average man under which class I include the average expert is structurally unable to accept radically innovating
—
—
ideas. and
gifts. deities. had been at length established. in turn. Gruppe's book of 1908. Their incapacity.
or of
Nature.
and revered
personages are in the nature of things apt to be nearly absolute.
this confidence in prejudice.. Die mythologiscJie
be
still
on his mere habit of any one of his historical least diffidence enough to
.
For my own part I have at on the look-out for fuller or better elucidations of a number of the problems here handled. the mob of average minds raged in the old fashion against Darwin. will surely be slow to
rely
certitude against a serious challenge to
convictions. Copernicanism and the Newtonian system had been generally assimilated.
After reading a good deal of history
am
disposed to admit that the " historical sense " can vary greatly in
. save for the already convinced. He who realizes the dissolution that has taken place within a hundred years of many beliefs held by tenure alike of intuition and of supposed
historical proof. Carpenter's bare
dictum against me.
suggest that every
To open-minded readers
in general I will only
new
reading of the past.
know
to the I
that he possesses the required
Dr. I am tempted to add to the first part of the present volume some account of the developments of mythological research as set forth in Professor 0. To that end. whether of
man
.
and accuracy and I am as sensible of psychic shortcomings on the part of my critics as they can be of mine but I do not see that anything is settled. which may as easily be wrong as
. obviously.

of course. such as the meritorious Martin Bruckner. professor
my
under a similar drawback in England. of Carlsruhe.
but aimed simply at bringing
sufficiently served
mythology
to bear
is
that this purpose
on surviving as well as without undertaking
manual of mythothe methods of on dead religion and
.
on
the
notable
alike
works
of
the late Pastor Kalthoff. was sold out in little more than a month and its theme was discussed in hundreds of meetings. following has irre-
sistibly
forced the question of
of
Jesus upon the
attention
scholars and laymen in
is
Germany.
to follow
the mythological research of the time. Jena. the problem
theological world. for some readers. The inclusion of matter within the scope of mythology is still the pressing problem and it is probably overloaded already.
xv
but refrain on the ground
that the following treatise never professed to be a
science. consisting of ten thousand copies.
Whatever
may
little
be the outcome.
Ghristusmythe (1st ed.
problem are undertaken in the treatise entitled Pagan Christs.
now
definitely present to the
German
Other treatises. entitled Is Jesus a Historical Personality ? I find Professor D. over a paper by Professor Dr.
of Dr. 1910. This unexampled ferment results proximately from the publication of the remarkable book by Dr. which followed the present book. Pfarrer von Soden disposing of my unworthy self as " an Englishman (not the celebrated one) who has no
auspices of the
great
name among us. innumerable journals. remind the reader that further developments of the
up
all
living
. 1910). Der sterbende und auferstehende Gottheiland in den orientalischen Beligionen und ihr Verhdltnis zum
book
. I may.
the historicity of
3rd ed. 1909
. however."
I
may be permitted
is
to offer the rev. The important thing is that the The discussion under notice has aroused the mind of Germany. Arthur Drews. There also. Drews entitled Die
condolences on the fact that he
. which. and a multitude of pamphlets. in the noteworthy discussion on the problem "Did Jesus Live?" held under the
German Society of Monists {Monistenbund) at Berlin on January 31st and February 1st. Thus.PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
Literatur aus den Jahren 1898-1905
logical
. and of which a new and expanded edition
is
now
in preparation.
Meantime I have pleasure in calling attention to certain works which tell of much new and vigorous activity over these problems in the great intellectual workshop of Germany. and to express the hope that both of us may nevertheless continue to hold up our heads. first edition of the report. conservative theologians resort to the argumentum ad hominem in its more elementary forms. with discussions of mythological issues which stand apart. H.

and is at vital points strengthened by. present
Ghristenthum in the " Religionsgeschichtliche Volksbucher" series it judicially and the pamphlet of Arthur
. and that of the important treatise of Dr. orthodoxy has small prospect of peaceful possession before it. is considerably further removed from the traditional belief than from
. W. 1910).
friend
In preparing the present edition I am deeply indebted to my Mr.
." so to speak. 1908). 1910. D. and C. sets forth the relation of the new theorem to the
critical
movement
of the past century.xvi
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
(Tiibingen. Smith on Der Vorchristliche Jesus
I
can but express
me
is
in
thesis of its
which first systematically set forth the case for the The fact that Professor Schmiedel thought that treatise worthy of a preface from him may suffice to countervail the dialectic which would dismiss it as an idle hypothesis.
(Giessen. Percy Vaughan for carefully reading the proofs and
revising the index.
followed by
my satisfaction that the line of argument fundamental agreement with. 1906).D. Here also. Whatever may be the fate of the theorem propounded in this book and in Pagan Christs.
July. Albert Schweitzer entitled The Quest of the Historical Jesus : A Critical Study of its Progress from Beimarus to Wrede. that of Professor Drews.
this negation thereof. Black) Professor F. Burkitt. however cavalierly. and the light comes "not through eastern windows only. B. The work of Dr.
title. has contributed a preface.
Bohtlingk." Ignored by most theologians. however. to the English translation of which (1910 A.. " it moves.
Zur Aufhellung
der Christusmythologie
(Frankfurt
am
Main. the problem is faced by some. C.
In England we do not move so fast.

arising in memory of a teacher with twelve disciples.INTRODUCTION
The
ago.
Soon
after. the
first
rigorous attempts to identify the
first Jesuists.
mythology
even surmised that. And none of the three aspects equated with the primary Jesus of Paul. led gradually to
. " another Jesus whom we have not preached. a sociological foundation was in a measure it was plain that the ground had not yet been cleared of
. an interposed Jesus the Nazarite.
continued as a study.
inquiry. broadly figured by "the" Gospel
To that end
I
Jesus
.
while the practical purpose was to exhibit " The Eise of
Christianity. But the first independent explorations. though
at that stage I
and
known frequency
alike of
. Thus the original
.
reached.
led to a series
Nazareth " turned out to be a compound of an already composite Gospel Jesus." And the Twelve Apostles were demonstrably
of fresh exposures of
myth. Bradlaugh. theorem represented a still imperfect appreciation of the scope and dominion of the principle of Myth and it fitly chanced that the sociological inquiry was arrested for a time as a literary task. in view of the Messiahs and Jesuses in Jewry.
While. therefore. Sociologically Considered. at
the request of the late Mr.
three treatises making up this volume stand for a process of
It set out
inquiry which began to take written form nearly twenty-five years
with a certain
:
scientific
principle
and a certain
historical purpose
the principle being that Christian Origins should
be studied with constant precaution against the
that all
myths
of action
the biography of
common assumption and doctrine must be mere accretions round a great teacher. I undertook
the research concerning "Christ and Krishna" by
scientifically
way
of solving
and objectively a simpler general problem in mythology and hierology and about the same time the undertaking of an independent research into Mithraism further enabled me to see the Christian problem in a fuller scientific light. an actual Such a succession of Jesuses might be the historical solution. and a superimposed Jesus born at Nazareth.
" Jesus of
mythical."
was
pre-
pared to assume a primitive cult. in Paul's words. Each in turn was. never discontinued as a subject of thought.

Percy Gardner entitled Exploratio Evangelica (1899). Consider." portions of which were also published serially. which came into my hands only when the bulk of this volume was in type. than
and
Mr. But the faculties which had been employed in the construction of myth were still at work. and in parts rewritten. a treatise in many respects wise and stimulating. the whole drift of the present work is a gainsaying of such divisions as the one thus sought to be drawn." Such language seems to me to confute itself: in any case. Bradlaugh's journal and was reprinted (1889) with is now again a good deal expanded. Gardner speaks 2 again of " the vague and childish character of the true myth. from the grossest to the slightest. by w ay of finally clearing the mythological ground for sociology "proper. P. and when inadequate or illusory hypotheses find acceptance in our own time. in detail. And they found their natural field in the adaptation of history to national and ethical 1 purpose.
. Dr." The study on " Christ and Krishna. for instance.
." I submit that there are all degrees of vagueness and childishness in myth. I cannot better prepare a reader to catch my point of view than by indicating it critically as against the diverging doctrine of the work of Dr.
Work
cited. As I regard it. untested." As regards the theoretic problem.
T
scientific
is
sunderance. is recast and greatly enlarged. when all is said.
2 Id. admirable as much of
knowledge. what seems to me the right method of dealing with certain problems glanced at in the opening treatise and on the other hand to lead organically into the general problem of Christian mythology." which first appeared
their
shown to be in the hands work is. even in the pre-Christian lore of Greece. simply a false hypothesis (whether framed in bad faith or in good faith) which once found easy credence.xviii
INTKODUCTION
Mythology as a more catholic
of its I
a conception of
science. Gardner's treatise relies unduly on the old. 149. metaphysical conception of mythology. A myth commonly so-called. That view
has yet been cultivators. It seeks on one hand to illustrate. and that though there may be grading there can be no
serially in
additions and corrections. the proposition that " probably at that time [early Christian age] in all the Levant the true mythmaking age luas over. we see exemplified at
once the play of the myth-making faculty and that of the
it
normal credulity on which
i
lives. Dr. or a
it
more
scientific classification of certain
have now tried to set forth critically historically in the opening treatise on " The Progress of Mythology. p. the survey of " The Gospel Myths. 108. Finally.

and
it
recognize variation. 328-9. True.
so to speak. and that which followed.
Gardner's distinction between the " true " mythmaking age B.
difference
while giving a general assent. between their mental processes and those
which
avail
secure the currency of
any
is
fallacious belief
in
politics
or in
science.INTRODUCTION
xix
Over a generation ago Adalbert Kuhn. stipulated that there is a great between the ancient classic or Vedic and the modern even the modern savage myth. more purposive.
1874. we see mythopoiesis at work among the educated followers of Madame Blavatsky
and
to
of
Mrs.
a conits
scious fiction on the part of
1
framer
but the credulity of
Letture sopra la mitologia vedica. modern science
makes impossible the old easy mythopoiesis among people scientifically instructed. and affirmed that the mythopoetic Professor Angelo de Gubernatis. provided we
. faculty simply varies and evolves. Ueber Entwichelungstufen der Mythenbildtmg. There was probably more scientific thinking in the Greek.
A
quite primitive
its first
myth may have been
. Eddy. than others and a myths are less fortuitous. to
say nothing of the survival of belief in Christian myths. denied that there had been any one "true" or sole mythical period. the rural population of Greece to-day is mentally nearer the myth-making and the stage than was the educated part of the Athens of Pericles
. but even in the "educated" world of to-day.
Catholic peasantry of southern Europe has been pretty much at the same standpoint down till the other day.C. one of the pioneers of modern mythology in Germany. admit that the differentiation is mainly in terms of knowledge. and
1
—
—
to exclude Dr. question might fairly be raised as to whether there is not here a true psychological distinction.
And
there
is
only a tint of psychic difference. in respect of the ancient comBut this is to bination of ignorance with abundance of language.
.
Any "explanation" which
for "
but an a priori formula to account
an uncomprehended and unanalyzed process of phenomena is a Some true myth " in so far as it finds utterance and acceptance. pp. Nay. My answer is that we can never demon.
strate the entire absence of
purpose:
it
is
always a question of
degree
makes little scientific difference in our elucidation whether we impute more or less of ignorant good faith. or of the rise of the Mormon cult in the civilized United States. in the concluding lecture of his course at Florence on Vedic Mythology.speaking world in the period from
Thales to Aristotle than in the greater part of it during the period between Augustus and the nineteenth century. in his lecture at Berlin.

Gardner.
that. we restricted ourselves to false hypotheses good faith.
framed
in absolute
the psychological process even of
myths commonly
so-called.
Its abolition very early
1
among the Hebrews was
and a sign
of
of
a
mark
of their unique religious consciousness. and has so fallen back on Hegelian formulas At philosophical myths where real solutions were quite feasible. p. what is to be gained by the concurrent use of both procedures. prepossessed by old conceptions of myth.
. 105. conceiving
myth thus comprehensively." The old explanation was a myth the other is only myth on a different plane of instruction. and that nature abhors a vacuum."
Work
cited. Even as the movement of the sun and planets was not scientifically accounted for by supposing them to be tenanted by Gods or guiding spirits.
on the view here taken. but also by of analysis of the texts. at least as regards phraseology. for instance. The effect of this change of theoretic standpoint must needs be
error as to a
"very early" disappearance
the
—
human
.
it
INTRODUCTION
in exactly the
same way
as others framed in
however. so far as they are accepted.
1
may
The Gospel Myths. on logy. for lack of analysis of the texts. made very much in the old way. I submit.
Myth
means
in the gospels. has often made little account of concrete mythothat is. students of mythology have often taken myth for
criticism of the history
we must come
But the
later criticism of the
—
—
of
As illustrating my idea biography. the same time. writes that " the Phoenician kinsmen of the Jews retained down to quite late times the terrible custom of human
sacrifice. though with far higher intellectual faculties. It obscures our comprehension of
Even
if. are myths. And such explanations."
This proposition
—to say nothing
of the serious historic
sacrifice among Hebrews I should describe as the quasi-explanation of an uncomprehended process in terms of the phenomena themselves as in the propositions that opium has a dormitive virtue. so the evolution of a community and its culture is not accounted for by crediting the community with "unique consciousness" and "lofty destiny.
is
to be detected not
merely by means of the data of comparative mythology. documents. the old conception of myth remains a stumbling-block to be got rid of. As Baur argued long ago.
Dr.
.
by
I
I will merely say have sought to track
and elucidate
it
lines of evidence not usually
made
to co-operate.xx
acceptors assimilated
better faith.
considerable. I
" point to the subsections of Part III.
their lofty
destiny. from
to criticism of the documents.

—
. In fine.
who And
that state of
mind
is
simply uncritical credulity.
:
me
. and (b) the Myth of first undertakes to trace an myth by various methods of comparative
of the
The
mythology. It seems in every way more profitable to put the case afresh from my own standpoint. and constantly frames his solutions in terms of the more problematical rather than in terms of the less. with to no effectual end. we say. with a theorist who did not believe that the first Christian Nazarenes were so called in the sense of Nazarites. they frequently convey a melancholy impression of a great expenditure of intellectual power In comparing Bruno Bauer.
makes a myth
first
" truly " so
framed
it. in particular by colligating clues in art and in literature the second undertakes to trace a relatively purposive myth by
analysis of the texts
which gradually construct
it. what
. may have originated in a deliberate fiction by a priest who gave what he knew to be a false explanation of a picture or sculpture the second may have originated in good faith. having read a good deal with little decisive gain.
is not the state of mind of the man but the state of mind of those who adopted it. in the latter case." The first myth.
leaving part of
the problem of the motives. Gardner's conception of " the true myth. for instance. But the bulk of the work of Bruno Bauer was practically thrown away by reason of his false Hegelian or quasi-Hegelian method for he is more Hegelian than Strauss. is ostensibly fortuitous. in its Christian aspect.
INTRODUCTION
dealing with (a) the
xxi
Myth
the Upbringing at
ostensibly
Nazareth. one cannot but be struck by the greater originality and acuteness of the free-lance. 11 safe " modern practitioners like Bernhard Weiss. for a wider historical
inquiry. The first myth. the second ostensibly purposive.
strike
in their circumstances
Not that they were not meritorious on the contrary. on the lines of my own chosen approach.
But neither assumption is susceptible of proof.
fortuitous
Temptation. Every phenomenon in the text is by him accounted for through an a priori abstraction of the constructive consciousness
as finally fallacious. leaving the less problematical line of demonstration unoccupied. which and to do is the result or sequel of a survey of previous methods this without even criticizing a whole series of such methods which
.
And here we have cases which test the old theory of myth Baur's and Dr. department is so immense that I have not sought to compass even the bulk of it. Much of it is a mere prolongation of dispute over the more problematical..
on
It may be that in some process of textual criticism in the treatise " The Gospel Myths " I have unknowingly put forward theses
The German literature in that already advanced by other critics.

than that of the previous critics
known
of
to
me
who have reached
similar anti-traditional results. as I should prefer to put it. No stronger brain than Baur has dealt with historical theology in Germany since his day either through their own choice of other careers or the
:
official selection of
other candidates. so far as it goes. exposed with perfect precision. from Milman onwards. the stronger German brains have mostly wrought in other fields. Cheyne who in our time has done original and at the same time valid and important service in that field. defence represents. The
late Dr. it is in " positive. If the capable men are there. whose error of method he Common prudence. though the sale of his works shows The corporate their wide acceptability even within its limits.
matter of the logical evolution of discovery.
any advantage as against the ecclesiastical I have suggested that that to look for. more obedient
to scientific canons. as in a disinterested science. The truth could make the transition certainly not Comte is that none of us so promptly as he supposed himself to have done at best we grow less and less metaphysical (or. therefore. more and more " positive. acting as psychological and
it
theoretically needs
sociological
. but of the social selection of types of teacher.
myth
in
place of
theological.
physical" tendency.
Edwin Hatch.
that
we
get
community. C.
.
The negation
is
right
the
affirmation is
wrong.xxii
INTRODUCTION
so
of the early Christian
must
. and much
a metaphysical
. So. appears to have been in a measure positively ostracized in his profession. however unconsciously. less a priori.
Broadly speaking. in the Church of England. less This appears even in the apriorist). such work as Bruno Bauer's.
It substitutes
anthropological basis.
of
that of Strauss." more inductive. the organization of an economic interest that the ostensible course of criticism is not a
That
this will give
it
defence would be too
much
. they are mostly gagged or obstructed. Baur." weighty performance of F. answers to Comte's conception of the normal rise of
mode of thought as the first departure from a theothough Bauer thought that he and Weisse and Wilke and others had reached the true " positive " standpoint. the one Churchman save Dr. dictates the admission that the method of the following treatises " metais likely to suffer in some degree from survivals of the
logical
this
—
—
. to the problems of Christian Origins. in terms of the concrete
phenomena
an mytho-
logy. a more " positive " thinker and investigator than Bruno Bauer. we see no continuous advance in the application of clerical ability.
general
more
I claim only that. for a pseudo-philosophical presupposition.

writing as a layman. avows that he cannot hope " to escape the opposition and anger which have always greeted any attempt to apply to the Christian creed the principles which are applied freely to other forms of faith. None
1
the
less. a rude awakening.
those
who
realize the precariousness of
modern gains
in
the battle against the tyranny of
the past must
continue the
it
campaign. p." I may well count on a worse if more cursory reception for a book which in places represents him as unwarrantably conservative of tradition.INTKODUCTION
interest
xxiii
and organization
avail to override unorganized liberalism. 118. Percy Gardner.
When then Dr. Unfortunately the open-minded laity are in large part satisfied to think that traditionalism is discredited.
. Such treatises properly appeal to serious and open-minded laymen.
there as elsewhere. so doing what they can to save the optimists from.
1
Work
cited. and so take up an attitude of indifference to works which any longer join issue with it. may be.

.

THE SCIENCE AND
§ 1.
. "
when
the igneous and aqueous hypotheses were united. mainly consists conception of relations.—
PAET
I.
a rapid advance took place
in Biology progress
came through "the
". as Mr.
—
—
called is seen in recent discussions to be only a collection of certain
lore. to belong to no science whatever." on a ground which he declares to be outside both and Nevertheless.
1
First Principles.
fusion of the doctrine of types with the doctrine of adaptations
1
and in Psychology. In Geology. on the ground that mythology so. Spencer
points out.
THERE
are stages in the history of every science when its progress can be seen to consist in applying to its subject-matter a wider Scientific progress. in such resorts to larger syntheses.
denied that there
.
1
22. similarly. p. Spencer proceeds to turn the generalization to the " account of his theorem of a " Eeconciliation " between " Eeligion " Science. proposition as above illustrated is just and there is an obvious presumption that it will hold good of any science in particular.
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
Chapter
I.
ITS
HISTOEY
The 'Problem.
". By some the title may be positively withheld. It is proposed in the present inquiry to try whether the renewed application of the principle may not give light and leading in the science if we can agree so to call it of mythology. But inasmuch as there has been progress in course of centuries towards scientific agreement on certain classifications of the phenomena and as this progress can
. to
which are applied conflicting theories and it is not to be is enough of conflict and confusion to give colour to such an account of the matter. is true that Mr. the general that is. indeed. an evolutionary conception partly It harmonized the doctrines of the Lockian and Kantian schools.

myth and tradition. under the ostensible reign of Naturalism. the bane of the science has been the more or less complete isolation of it in thought from all the other forms. must occur in terms of the general conditions of traditionary error and such error in general must be conceived in terms of men's
.
. is a form of traditionary error and while the definition of mythology turns upon the recognition of the special form. though latterly retarded more than others by the persistence of pre-scientific assumptions. Spencer. myth and early morals. in the last half century.
of scientific progress. 1833.
1
Paris.
2
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
be shown to consist in successive extensions of the relations under which they are contemplated. Myth. as sketched in the Introduction a l' etude de la mythologie of Emeric-David. broadly speaking. whereas in past times there was an overpowering tendency to handle it from the point of
we compare
1
. after ages in which men looked at myth from a point of view that made almost invisible the psychological continuity between myth-makers' mental processes and their own. The best analogy for our purpose is perhaps not any of those cited from Mr. there is reason to conclude that
mythology is a science like another. we must admit a considerable progress though if we should chronicle as he did the backward treatises as well as the others we could make a rather chequered narrative. it seems clear. myth and supernaturalist biography.. myth and allegory. is now nearly though not quite as generally employed in this as in the other sciences. often broached but not accepted before our time.
efforts
at
explanation or classification of
stages
of
things in
general.
at
Yet in our own time.
. If past scientific experience can yield us any guidance.
. where Newton's great hypothesis was by way of seeing planetary motions as cases of motion in general. we find accomplished students of the science still much occupied in setting up walls of utter division between the mythopoeic and all other mental processes between the different aspects of between myth early classification between the aspects of myth and " religion.
Gains there have certainly been. The definite gain is that the naturalist method. myth and legend.
§ 2. it would seem that such a tendency is frustrative
successive
thought. When its results with those of the previous ten or even four centuries.
.
The
Scientific Beginnings. but rather the case of Astronomy. Any form of traditionary error." religion and magic.

taking note only of the rather one-sided view of the anthropological principle presented later by De Brosses and his disciple Benjamin Constant. while on the other the school of Evemeros framed a set of false "naturalistic" explanations. §7. save in that it oddly omits all mention of Fontenelle.
of
logical science. vi-xx.
barely glimpsed
In rationalistic antiquity. to note the manner of the progression.) this key is applied very much on the lines of the modern solar theory.*??* pp. whose essay Be Vorigine des fables. del i° Knauistico.
2. He might have extended the list to a hundred but it is duly representative. 1 This was of
. But that
step of science. Lang points out. ue ^. The mythologists sank the fabulous personalities of the Gods in symbols the skeptics sank them in actual human personages. A substantially scientific beginning was made by the late school which reduced the symbolism of the older schools to a recognition of the large part played by sun
and moon
in
most
In the hands of Macrobius (4th c.
rectified the
or wilfully ignores
forth in the
however.
all
previous
treatises
the one which
could best have enlarged and
French historian's own method. Esame critico Introd. as Mr. the learned academician
makes out a list of between seventy and eighty scholarly writers on mythology down to Benjamin Constant.
. It may be helpful at this point.
twelfth. substantially anticipated the modern anthropological and evolutionary point of view. How effectively that belief has retarded this science in particular may be partly gathered from Emeric-David's historical sketch.
being equally devoid of the requisite historical knowledge. and Father Cara. the principle of evolution was and on the one hand the professed mythologists
. Gladstone.THE SCIENCE AND
view of that belief in " revelation "
ITS
HISTOEY
3
which so seriously vitiated the study of Greek mythology in the hands of Mr. like
systems.
aimed at multiplying symbolical or allegorical meanings rather than tracing development. Decharme. 1686. then.. applicata alia mitologia e alia scienza clelle reUgione. and in part by Karl Ottfried Miiller in his earlier Prolegomena. as very fairly set main by Emeric-David.iZ Prato 1884?
^
.
Beginning with Albric in the eighth century.
8 nd ""^' *** ?le present sketch is of course only a bird's1 Mythologie.
may
advance and reaction in the history of mythobe thus summarily and formally stated.
S pS^Ttt wS^STteO^^iSS ^
2
S 4 -^ es his Histoire des
Oracles. Maimonides in the and Boccaccio in the fourteenth. the last eminent practitioner on the old basis. Einleitung. and he either overlooks it. with results which are still in large part valid. 2
The movements
1.
\
AV
lt
^
>
.
eye
siitrma MniZ.

Bochart. and Vico. though opposed
still
by
critical
scholars such as Selden. and did but accumulate data. in the sixteenth century. Bacon. was lost under Christianity and the resurgence
of barbarism.
pagan
Other
earlier
and
later theologians.—
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
4
nearly every other. failing to realize the character of their own. but the theological method and premisses overrode scientific views. with
principle that the
much wider
deities
knowledge. New attempts were in large part a priori. 4.
3. and without method.
Mceurs des sauvages ameriquaius.g. Basnage. as Leibnitz. when not disposing
of
Pagan Gods as
demons. though in the field of hierology the Jesuit Lafitau clearly saw the connection between ancient and savage religious customs. and by assuming further that the early life of antiquity was truly
set forth only in the Bible.
1724. 8.
i. as
Huet.
. applied it fancifully. Skeptics like Bayle derided all explanations alike. slightly. who made symbolism his general principle of interpretation. as sun and moon. The scholars of the Renaissance recognized the principle of Nature-symbolism. 5. as set forth by Macrobius but when. Vossius.
6. 1685) was far in advance of the powers of assimilation of the time.
and
of Biblical narra-
The sound theorem
of personalized forces
was
reiterated
by
Vico and others. But others. Such an application of comparative method as was made by Spencer of Cambridge (De Legibus Hebrceorum.
180. it had no general guiding principle. confused all by the theological presupposition (adopted from the ancient atheists) that the pagan deities were deified men. had no thought save to ridicule the old mythologies. who saw myth
origins in perversions both of historical fact
tives.. applied the old
were personalized nature-forces. and that of savage origins was thrown out by Fontenelle. even comparing Psalm 186 with the Death-song of a 1 North American Indian at the stake.
. and some went back to Evemerism e. and wrongly staked all on purposive allegorizing. that of the Abbe Banier. Other rationalists failed to apply the clue of evolution from savagery. and ridiculed the hope of reaching any better. and Mosheim.
1
Lafitau.
Selden and others.
The Christian Fathers. 7.
Gods were perversions
of
and that all pagan theologies were perversions of an earlier monotheism. scholarship began to classify the details of the pagan systems. went
further astray on the theory that pagan
Biblical personages
.

Les Buines (1791). did not improve on Heyne's unduly to the belief that primeval man allegorized reflectively. 11. leaning
Heyne
primitive
mode
of
thinking could give rise to similar myths in
1 Preller (Griech.
altered.
it
. Eecognizing that the same
as he later
positions. while teaching that their myths came to be literally believed by posterity. But this classification.
. whether or not profiting by 10. did not account for the obscurer primitive elements of myth. 1794. 1860. thai.
He
radically
however.
In
1
England
and
movement of the eighteenth century also led to the recognition of myths in the Old Testament. In the same period. 1760)
was
as noteworthy as that of Fontenelle. and always knew that what they said had not really happened. later insisted on by Mr. i. 20) finds a predilection to particular points of view in the different nations— the Italians arguing for allegory." lacking
deistic
Germany the
—
—
11
the morality and delicacy of a later age. though necessarily unscientific at
some points
for lack of anthropological data. 2 Bde. the great astronomical and symbolical system of Dupuis (chief work. whence it 2 reached the post-Homeric Greek rationalists. 1828-9. A distinct advance in breadth of view was made by Butt3 mann. 2 Mythologische Brie)'e.
and
poeticized.
but more brilliant work
proceeds on an earlier
This was eloquently done also in the slighter of Volney.
did Creuzer.THE SCIENCE AND
9. in assuming that the early myth-makers only provisionally albeit " necessarily " personified natural forces." and that in later periods
early
erred.
But even the
the time were not in general ready for
and the Christians
the other hand. and. ed. who purified Heyne's doctrine as to the essential primitiveness or aboriginality of typical myth. On the other
hand.
might have
deists of
of
served as a starting-point for
new
science. 1795). is only loosely true for any period and it no longer holds good in any degree. he erred in ascribing to the Homeric bards a concep-
myths as pure symbol this conception having originated with the theosophic priests of Asia and Egypt. and the Germans standing for an original monotheism. which
research
by Dupuis. recognizing that myth is " the infant language of the race. and making too much of the otherwise valid theory of deified ancestors. Spencer. 3 Treatises between 1794 and 1828 collected in MytJwlogus.
much
On
Apocalypse. the French for Evemerism and other pragmatic principles. and freshly laid the foundations of Comparative Mythology. as Preller implicitly admits.
ITS
HISTOEY
clcs
5
The Naturalism
of
De Brosses
(JDu culte
fetiches. an application of the theses and methods of Macrobius to the gospels and to the
course
less so. opposing
tion of these
. Heyne Fontenelle developed a view that was in large part scientific. Voss. the Dutch for perversion of the Bible. though it rightly carried the mythological principle into the
surviving religions.
myths were embellished.
My
.

Similarly Arnold Huge. lxv. system.
— as
that of the derivation
and that of verbal misconception. As it was. He also noted the fact fallaciously stressed by Mr. d. however. pronounced that "Sonst. The anthropological method had been indicated by Heyne. ist Dupuis' Werk eine grosse freie That. De Vorigine de tous les Concerning that. whom he does not mention. besonders der Griechen. proceeding on similar fundamental lines. while rightly recognizing that
assumption
of a
personification
was a fundamental law
false
founded on the
religion. but on this side he made no use of it. Creuzer. theoretisch und praktisch auf den Boden der wiedergeborenen Menschheit tritt.
Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Volker. and symbolical only.
12.
. Welcker. nevertheless
on the other hand. Hermann.
is
principle.
comlittle
prehensive collocation.
Alongside of these later German writers. he
. after pointing out its errors of p. he thus
made
too
of the special local significance of
many^myths.
of early thought.
His own interpretative
Jupiter (1832). further set forth
in
his treatise
that laid
down with
caution but applied without
any by Bacon that myths are symbolical attempts to explain Nature and to make his treatise broadly scientific it needed that he should have recognized how the principle of so-called fetichism. and still later by Max Miiller. he rightly admitted that with all its limitations " it still constitutes the most luminous treatise that has 2 been written on mythology".
—
partly rectified the bias towards a single astronomical point of view
which narrows the great treatise of Dupuis. 1810-12. likewise con-
some myths from
—
—
ceived
myth
too
much
in
terms
of the constructive
allegorizing of
priesthoods. h. or the actual primitive personalizing of nature-forces. G. die himmelweit ttber die Makeleien und Ohrenbeichten der deutschen und neufranzosischen Mantel. und im Wesentlichen dankbar anzuerkennen und festzuhalten ist. Erneric-David does not innovate in any effective fashion.und Rechnungstrager hinausgeht. a theory later carried to excess by F. 1st die ausschliessliche Riicksicht auf die astronomischen Gotter einseitig so ist sie darum nicht minder eine wesentliche und gerade hinsichtlich der christlichen Priesterspeculation eine sehr interessante Seite der
1
."
"pure monotheistic primitive
obscure
personified forces quite spon-
and so stressed the idea
of reflective allegory as to
his
own
doctrine that primeval
man
taneously. 2 Introduction cited. Lang in our own day that the primitive mind made no such distinction between spirits and bodies as is made in later theology. wenn wir diesen Mangel ergtinzen. and his own contribution may be
cultes.6
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
he called
for a
different nations independently of intercourse.
1
Naturally. 4 Bde.
of
Yet he introduced real clues
ritual. preceded and conditioned the systems which the writer handled as purposively symbolical. overlooking the spontaneous
and
relatively fantastic
beginnings of savagery. whose system he admitted to be " true at bottom".

by
scrutiny of
all
the sources
thing too seldom thought of before his day
—he arrived
—
at the clear
demonstration that " Callisto is nothing else than the Goddess and her sacred animal combined in one idea. 24. p. under the title Introduction to a Scientific System of Mythology. ihr Entstehen unci Vergeben." The fusing of so many different animals with the cult of the Sun-God raises difficulties. There is some ground for doubt.
Good samples
2
of his services as a
first-hand investigator are his statement of the grounds for holding
that the complete
bear. Orpheus.
2
3 4
Introduction. Eng. as to whether all the animal associations of Greek Gods are to be explained on the same principle—that the animal is the original God. and Mr. is
Sache" (Reden iiber Religion. 1 Translated in English in 1844. 58. pp. A.
S. merely referring to Dupuis in an Appendix. an die Gebildeten unter ihren Verehrern.
Id. pp. 16-17. the application of the pagan keys to the
Christian religion.
. Cp." that a bear-Goddess. Lang. that the animal 3 The subsequent ascertainment was sacred to Arcadian Artemis. or
be seen that the old
two or
three. by J. Lang.P. was anciently worshipped at Berne. At the same
time."
Cp. 1869.. he brought to bear on all Greek matters an exact and critical knowledge such as had hardly ever before been vigilantly applied to mythology and though he did not escape the bane of all he did not a little pioneers indefiniteness and self-contradiction
much
to clear
up the
scientific
most
intellectual
. on his principle of not criticising living writers. Whether
this
came
it is
of policy or of
non-acquaintance
we cannot
well divine
in
but
did
much
to be regretted that
vital
he thus
failed to
come
touch
with the most
problem
of his study. Artio. 81). and the human form a later development.
Eeinach. he
of the
ground so far as he did go.
his analysis of the
myth of Prometheus and Epimetheus is late. 1909. So Eeinach. p. in his reprint of his essay in The Origins of Religion (R.
tr. But none the less had Muller brought to the study of Greek
mythology a learning.* of which Emeric-David makes no mention. and myth of the transformation of Callisto into a
strict
In the latter case. von Arnold Huge. essay on Apollo and the Mouse.. however. 2te Aufl.
—
—
to reduce previous confusions. 119-120. p. writes that it " is to be taken under all reserve. he
made no attempt to carry on the great practical service of Dupuis and his school. and a method which give a really In the school of Dupuis he shows scientific character to his work. 22.a
. One and most alert German scholars of that great period.
The same thing falls to be said in some degree of the earlier Prolegomena of Karl Ottfried Muller (1828) . but confines himself to the Greek. Custom and Myth. in the original legend. 1908). Leitch. for this reason only. letting
symbolical interpretation of nature was at once a simpler and a more complicated matter than Dupuis had supposed. no interest. ed." and that Callisto became a bear. a genius.
On
the other hand.
THE SCIENCE AND
new keys
to Dupuis's
ITS
HISTORY
it
7
said to have consisted in adding several
wards to Dupuis's key.

Ottfried Muller is perhaps only at two points open to serious criticism. 18. cited
Einleit." he is led by his passion for classical antiquity to put an 2 unreasonably flat contradiction. in the light even of previous explanation. that systematic symbolism and allegory were the main and primary sources of myth arguing with Schelling that mythi were at the outset essentially spontaneous and unartificial. and thus seems to set his face against the fundamental truth that all religion begins in savagery.8
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
His deficiency on the
a memorable vindication of Muller's insight. p.
20. and. by Strauss. both earlier and later." and leaves us asking.
256. while disregarding the immorality of others.
Schelling
§ 8. It is not incumbent on the historical investigation of mythology to ascertain the foundations on which it rests. when dealing with the substantially sound thesis of Heyne. and in which it is difficult for us to enter. Of the principle of totemism. 61. if it is anything. which traces many animal worships to a motive independent of any selection of "powerful" types. nature. The difficulty becomes acute when.
1
:
—
—
1 Cited by Muller. first. it could be no worship at all.
thing. that mythology. Ueber
4
My then.
to Artemis as a
when he
observes that
Nature-Goddess "the most powerful creatures in This is unduly vague.
2
Muller." he insists that." On which one at once answers." and that " poverty and necessity are its parents. whether the bear was not after all associated with the Goddess because of the verbal resemblance between the
names arhtos (bear) and Artemis. must be of itself a part of the history of the human mind.
. Leben Jesu. whether the bear is not traceable further.
had said the same
P.
1793. p." 4 He " Here we have to deal with a mode of contemplating the goes on world which is quite foreign to our notions. or whether the latter name is not a mere development from the former. and that it must in
. Muller had not learned to take account.
3
P. in the light of later anthropology. as distinguished from mere mykhography. concrete side appears in the same connection. if a certain worship were " allegorical in the strict sense. implicit in Dupuis and explicit in Creuzer (though Creuzer
also implied the contrary). were sacred. This must be left to the highest of all historical sciences one whose internal relations are scarcely yet dreamt of the history of the human mind. He rightly controverted the view. making a needless verbal strife over the term " allegory. such as the bear. which he holds to be very early. As regards general principles. At the same time. 3 Thus he inconsistently lays stress on the conscious moral purpose of the myth of Zeus and Lycaon. that "the my thus [in its early forms] was the infant language of the race.

pp. however.
As against these minor confusions. Where he differs from the scientific man (though not from the religious) is in his power of passing from the half. But indeed he is thus reasoning on psychological grounds all through his treatise and we are entitled to say that the deliverance above cited is in plain contradiction of his practice. 272. in every field of the science of history.
2 Id. 2 " my thus and allegory are ideas lying [necessarily] far apart". as well as of his later and really sound decision. p.
3
While he avoided
Id. the attribution of " allegory " to myths in general. as does Grote after him. do but point to
the confessed imperfection of the "history of the
a consideration which
verbally. it is
clearly late.
. as Miiller puts it. goes
on to specify such a foundation when
he speaks of a" certain necessity of intuition " as underlying the formation of mythi.
f"
That
is
the most serious contradiction in the book
and we can
but say on the other hand that the reasoner enables us to correct
His frequent protests (echoed by Grote) against errs. ascend on
.—
THE SCIENCE AND
some
sort settle its bases as
it
ITS
. be sure that some of the writers he antagonized
were using the word " allegory "in a sense of which the practical fitness is tacitly admitted by his repeated use of the phrase " strictly 4 3 allegorical.
the ladder of facts to
a knoivledge of internal being and
life
.
HISTORY
9
goes along
and. we must place to the credit of Ottfried Miiller a general lucidity and a catholicity of
method that make him
1
still
a valuable instructor.
18. that Miiller
himself. second par. In any case.
4
History of Greece.
dispute. secondly. or at least is often in a manner allegorizing when he makes his story to explain the facts of nature. 273. that an allegorical explanation frequently holds good of parts even of early myths which is really a surrender of the essentials in the
. that " mythology is still an historical science like every other. 58.
human mind" made him more circumspect What is allegory ? and while we can
agree that early Greeks certainly did not allegorize as did Spenser
and Bunyan. I think." All the while he admitted. and we may.
all
him when he
should have
We
are left asking. p. For can we call a mere compilation of facts history ? and must we not.
Id. in the next breath. given in comment on Creuzer.
—
not historically or psychologically true that. and that the Prometheus story in its complete form is we are none the less forced to surmise that something of the nature of allegory may enter even into early myths that at times even the myth-making savage in a dim way necessarily distinguishes at the outset between his myth and his other credences.allegoric conception to the literalist.

g. and likely in the future to yield results of the first importance when applied to living as it has 6 been to dead problems. Cited by Miiller. and on the other hand to connect mythology with the surviving religions. But thereby hangs. that in many cases " the whole my thus sprang from the worship. a tale to the effect that the course of true mythology does not run smooth. however.
2
P. 6 It must always be kept in mind that the worship which has given rise to a given mythus has itself arisen out of a previous mythus. Frazer. 19. as we shall see.
—
our
summary
13. Thus far.
The Relation
to
Christianity. on a different plane of conception. end of oh. end. The most helpful 3 of his many luminous thoughts is perhaps his formulation of the 4 principle. and previously in his Orcliomenos (1820). Le Message de Skirnir et les Bits de
4
3
Grimnir. G.
the extravagances of the symbolists. 5 History. 1. 3." Without laying down the anthropological method. without rejecting anything of that kind. 206.—
10
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
. then.
studies
(the former looking
§ 3. p. Each. and compare Bergmann. implicitly to be gathered from Creuzer. gave sound general guidance. § 1. after Dupuis the first systematic
application of mythological science to the Christian system. alike failed on the one hand to explain the barbarous and primeval element in mythology.
Pp. and Miiller in particular established some rules of great importance. proceeding on earlier
and laying down general principles for myth interpretation narrowly to documentary evidences and the latter putting stress on general symbolic values). J. See below. p. and wait for the develop2 ment of individual cases. p. ch. merely hold back. especially by his keen attention to the geography of Greek myth and while disclaiming all-round interpretation he helps us to many solutions.
1871. and not the worship from the my thus " a principle accepted from him by 5 Grote and by a number of later students. 135. that of the Dog-Star. we may round
explained
. p.
of progress
:
Karl Ottfried Miiller and Emeric-David. iii. The application of the science to living problems is the weakest point in its present development. 18
:
cp.
. 175. he sensibly recognized and
many symbols and while he objected to allegoric systems he gave the sound advice: "Let us therefore.
several generations the mythical principle
For
had been
:
partially applied
by German scholars
to matters of current belief the stimulus of the English deistical school having borne fruit more continuously among
1
E. 270.
So close on the publication of Ottfried Miiller's Prolegomena as not to be fundamentally affected by it. including Professor Eobertson Smith and Dr. he prepares us for it. came Strauss's epochmarking Leben Jesu (1835). 171. from the introduction to the Symbolik.

The Old Testament narratives. strenuously
if
imperfectly.
The
latter
work
of the highest
noteworthy as already laying down the principle that it is importance to compare the myths of different races. Einleitung.
2
5 "
6
The
England
Das
1802.
but for similarity of experience and
a given culture-stage.
.
The
progress. by the reaction against the French Revolution.
Id.
as early as 1802 there
was published by G. iv. who had connected the 3 Much if Samson myth with that of Hercules as early as 1773.
1
Strauss has
shown how
vacillating
Hebraische Mythologie.
i. 8 Id. pp. priest-ridden kingdom of the leopards" was Alexander Humboldt's label for in the early part of the century.
. were at an absolute standstill. A generation later.
and thus he personifies
tions Bauer still follows the early mythic episodes to exaggerations or misconceptions of actual events. 4 Pref to 2nd edition.
17.
but so fast did criticism go that
L. whereas Keightley in producing the first edition of his Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy (1831) could say that "in selecting mythology" he "took possession of a field 4 which [in England] lay totally unoccupied.
THE SCIENCE AND
but
. as was the case in England and France. following on Heyne and Reimarus.
ITS
HISTORY
11
them than elsewhere. ii.
the Old and
Bauer a
treatise
on
the
Hebrew Mythology of
is
New
Testaments. " rationalism " of the latter part of the not most of the German eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth century is thus vitiated by the fixed determination to reduce mythic narratives to In Paulus the method approaches misinterpretations of real events. to nearly every depart-
ment
of
traditional
knowledge. While English theology and philosophy.
way
of
thought among
men
of
It also affirms in so
2
many words
that "the
savage animizes
lives
all
things (denht sich alles belebt). and he makes little advance on Semler." the Germans had a whole library of treatises compared with which even his much improved second edition was but a respectable and prejudiced manual. under ecclesiastical auspices. 1838.
were
first
dealt with
. burlesque. 81. § 6. German thought was apply-
what But in his interpretarationalist method of reducing
ing rational tests."
can
act. Vorrede. Deistical in spirit the movement remained it had all the easier a course and the line of thought entered on by the school of Eichhorn. v.
thereby to learn
how
parallels
1
may
stand not for identity of matter. of course. 8-11. So far had free scholarship travelled at a time when the 5 teachers of the insular and stipendiary Church of England were " infidelity" was no longer associated with scholarly declaring that names. for only
all.
6
of
course. Leben Jesu. Hence a discredit of the school and even of the name.
was
halting and uncertain at best.. was not even blocked.

it was not a decisive force. even for theoretical purposes. they were always trying to limit their concession. 1799 an anonymous writer on " Revelation and
. his
Cp. The Myth of Judas Iscariot. " the author knows to be entirely independent of his
1
critical researches. On the side of philosophy. Part III. Div.
another. above all those bound up with the very central doctrine of theanthropic sacrifice and eucharist and
interests of faith. then admitting
myth
to a
certain extent. but
it
ignored the connecting clue of the numerous
It showed the incredibility and the irreconcilable confusions of the resurrection story but it did not bring forward the mythic parallels. trying later to
draw a
line
between the Old Testament and the
as regards only the infancy of Jesus
New. " The inner kernel of the Christian faith. and between this and the more limited treatment of details by intermediate writers the world was partly prepared for Strauss's own massive critical machine. as when he decides the historic reality of John the Baptist to be certain. And yet. he strikes a scientific reader dumb by his naive assurance that his long investigation of the life of Christ need have no effect on Christian doctrine. and
i.
§ 21. though manipulated by Matthew in one way and by Luke in
ancient ritual cults of a Divine Child.12
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
how
and inconsistent were most of the innovators in their advance. all that he should and would do. had an ideal existence in the Jewish mind long prior to his birth".
It
dealt with the salient item of the Virgin-birth in the light of general
mythology. again.
—always
this
by reason
of a too exclusive
attention to Judaic sources." he writes in his preface. and next to admit
myth
compromising in the Yet so early as Mythology " had substantially set forth Strauss's own thesis. At many points Strauss is Evemeristic even in condemning Evemerism. striving to
myth
to early times. seeking for each
limit the field of
myth
a historical basis. On the side of mythological science it was defective in that it overlooked many of the Pagan mythelements in the Christian cult. it did not properly apply the decisive documentary test that lay to hand in the Pauline epistles.
1
Dealing with the obviously mythical story of the betrayal
by Judas. though the formidable character and effect of that is the theme of an abundant literature. in the author's Studies in Beligious Fallacy. or of simple peace and quietness. attempting
first to
explain miracles as natural events.
. As regards the process of mythic accretion.
Christ's supernatural birth. he never realizes the central preposterousness of the narrative. that "the whole life of Jesus.
see below. and treats it as history.
. and the story of the Sermon on the Mount to be in the main genuine.

instead of carrying out
the demonstration and following
directions.supernatural narratives had been broadly demonstrated. specialist criticism. pp.. He might a good deal more relevantly have given the advice to Strauss. but
1 E. The dogmatic import (Gehalt) of the Life of Jesus will be shown by a dissertation at the end of the work to be uninjured. and at the beginning and end assured everybody that it all made no difference to religion. Julius Miiller Strauss. and that those must be frivolous who thought otherwise. 1845. that after
up
to its conclusions
in
all
back on the textual analysis of the documents. has fallen
it
roughly
this. If the " rational " critic felt as Strauss did after fifteen hundred pages of
. Only the certainty of this can give calmness and weight to our criticism. though Colenso's avowed purpose was to put an end to deception. and distinguish it from the naturalistic criticism of previous centuries." There are different conceptions of what constitutes frivolity and it would have been pleasant to have Voltaire's estimate of the seriousness of a scholar and theologian who produced an enormously laborious treatise of fifteen hundred pages to disprove every supernatural occurrence connected with the life of Jesus.
—
destructive argument.
in Voices of the
Church against
. whose work he not very ingenuously exalted in comparison. Only in Hegelian Germany could such supernatural flimsiness of theory have been conceived as solid philosophy and even in Germany. which aimed at upsetting the religious truth along with the historical fact.
was small
call for
the priest to alter his
And what has happened
in regard to the
is
mythology
of both
the Judaic and the Christian systems
the mythical character of the quasi. . in the generation of Hegel.
far. thereby furthering the " endless " progress towards the dissolution of the forms in the consciousness of the community and this in a work in the vernacular. leaving the question of truth and reason as much as possible in the background. Later work on Hebrew mythology there has been. 176-7.THE SCIENCE AND
miracles. however far their reality as historical facts may be put in doubt. Arnold gravely if not bitterly complained that Colenso ought to have written in Latin. It was not unnatural that such a teaching should leave the practice of Christendom very much where it found it. stories to the people with due attention to the spiritual application.
On
the Theory of Myths. remain eternal truths. to keep on telling the mythical advice to the clergy.
ITS
HISTOEY
13
his resurrection and ascension.g. Mr. and so necessarily came to conduct itself frivolously. there
course. there was a good deal 1 of serious if not frivolous comment on Strauss's final Kantian This was.

So with the mythology of the New Testament and the ritual In that regard also we now hear little of the element of myth. the Deuteronomist or the Eedactor. pref. the Jerusalem Davidian. p. that this process of restriction turns upon one of selection in the personalities of the men concerned. 1st ed.14
not.
the business
is for
them too
factitious. It would seem impossible that after Strauss and Baur and Eenan and Colenso the stronger and more original minds could deliberately take up theology as of old and as a matter of fact no minds of similar energy have appeared in the Churches since that generation completed their work. The powerful minds of the new generation do not take up orthodox theology at
Biblicists
it
. too unreal.
.
1 This judgment ceases to hold good since the publication of Hugo Winckler's Geschichte Israels (1900). thus
failing to counteract the arrest of the study. xv.
So we get a generation of specialists devoutly bent on 2 settling whether a given passage be by P or P by the Yahwist or the Elohist. .
textual analysis
is
to leave
much
of the
human
significance of the
phenomena unnoticed. It thus appears that when the higher criticism has done its work. or the other. 2 See Canon Driver's Introduction to the Study of the Old Testament. men engaged in the analysis tell us that the scribes and interpolators 2 dealt with really had supernatural qualifications after all.
and even
that. their lore being One surmises at least kept free of any specific acknowledgment.
On
the professional
1
seems to have had no practical effect. For Baur we have Harnack for Bishop Colenso Bishop Barry the Bishop Creightons meddling with none of these things.
all
. too essentially
frivolous.
to
a
considerable extent
unconvincing.
THE PEOGKESS OF MYTHOLOGY
on the part
is
of professed theologians
. the higher common-sense will have to take up the dropped clues of mythology and conduct us to a scientific sociologico-historical view of religious development.
—
. or the Saulist or the Samuel. Of course this is the only species of rational criticism that can be pursued in theological chairs even in Germany so that even if a professor recognizes the need for a moral and intellectual criticism of the Judaic literature. as before. he must be fain to confine himself to documentary analysis and platitudes.
as
we
shall see.
. very well worth clearing up. But the dyer's hand seems to be subdued to what it works in. but a good deal of the composition of the
usages of the Churches.Saulist an interesting field of inquiry. but forming a singular basis on which to re-establish the practice of taking that mosaic of forgery and legend as the supreme guide to human conduct. . Even in our own day. The textual analysis is a great gain but to end with
.

special to Christianity. as there were some brewers but added that "for a perfectly safe subject he might take the conversion of the Jews.
sound culture. when arranging with a brother cleric to take his place. plus the classics. and Folk-lore.
ITS
HISTOEY
15
gospels and men supposed to know the results of that analysis are found treating as great spiritual truths. savagery." Mythology is kept perfectly safe. warned him against speaking on capital and labour.
. and the heathen Sun-God. The principle seems to be that of the legendary preacher who. the Tree. as the congregation included some large employers. the Earth-Mother.THE SCIENCE AND
. the Storm-Cloud. data and doctrines which appertain to the systems and credences of buried Paganism. and made to figure as an academic science. including the results of mythological science.
. or on temperance. The undertaking to frame a psychological presentment of
the "real Jesus"
is
still
seriously pursued. fairies. spiritually remote from modern faith and ritual. to Sanskrit. The men capable of realizing the seriousness of the fact either remain outside the Church or follow Strauss's counsel inside. are often almost entirely ignorant of any bearings of Comparative Mythology on the gospels. Mythological science has been prudently restricted to other fields. by being kept to the themes of the Dawn.
.
wherewith to materialize the
silent spectre of the
Thus Evemerism is still the order of the day as regards the Christian mythus and people who are supposed to possess a
epistles. even though they may have learned to disbelieve in miracles. totems. albeit the
documentary
Pauline
analysis does not leave even a skeleton for the accepted historical
figure.

Kuhn. it has not been idle or altogether ill-employed. with whatever laxities of logic and psychology. with hardly any avowed recognition of its bearing on current creeds. and with more or less of scientific bias. H. The Original Form of the Legend of Prometheus.
making the way
Steinthal. however. Colenso.
The Meteorological. in tracing out the Comparative Method. and Kenan were successively disturbing the peace of the Church without much resort to the mass of mythological lore. Unfortunately the schools are thus far much at issue among themselves. wind. 1883.
with Goldziher. however. To Kuhn. 363-5. who had collaborated with him in collecting the Norddeutsche Sagen (1848). the presentment of mythological science so-called. Etymological. Indoger. our
those of
its
Even as the textual analysis of the Jewish and Christian sacred books lays a solid foundation for the mythologist of the future.
MODERN SYSTEMS
§ 1. was an acute or rather ingenious theorist along particular lines of myth-phenomena.
science has thus faltered and turned back on paths which come the straightest and the nearest to living interests.
16
. Meyer.
1
tr.
x
. E. i. by reason mainly of their differing ways of restricting the application of the Comparative Method. his tendency being to reduce all myths to those of the phenomena of storm-cloud. so the modern schools of mythology." in which poets and priests had not yet given the Gods personalitiesAbout the same period in England Max Miiller founded a separate "Aryan" school. have been
who will not submit to any While Strauss.Chapter
II. . and lightning. who in Germany began the new investigation on the basis of the Vedas. . 1. Mythen. new and professed mythologists were beginning anew. Eng. standing mainly on the solar principle as against the storm-system of Kuhn and inasmuch as this was but a setting
easier for successors
restriction of their field. pp. and Solar Schools.
WHILE. rain. did real service to the science by his analyses and explanations of nature-myths in his Ursprung der Mythologie (i860) though he also sowed the seed of much separatist fallacy by predicating a " pre-religious " period "older than the Gods. belongs the honour of inaugurating the new Comparative Mythology in and his terms of the affiliation of Greek God-names to Sanskrit brother-in-law Schwartz.

p. 8 Essay on Comparative Mythology. nor religion." 3 he was putting a true conception which transcends the limitary principle of " disease of language. he elaborated the theory of Creuzer and Welcker as to verbal confusions.
trace back the footsteps of
man
to insist that " as far we see that the divine
gift of
first
a sound and sober intellect belonged to him from the very and the idea of a humanity emerging slowly from the depths
an animal brutality can never be maintained again. Cp. the scientific advance was not great.J
¥
i
!
. Miiller thought
fit
we can
. ancien * world. 3rd ed. Had Miiller merely claimed
some cases a myth arose as it were at second-hand by the misunderstanding of a name. nor ethics. 11.
t v. indeed." At the same time he declared that " mythology is only a dialect."
and
that. At the very
outset of his
as
work
in 1856. the embodiment of genders in all names having the effect of setting up the habit of thinking of natural objects as
—
—
a "disease of
like the pearl in
animate and sexual. the disease
once developed
the oyster or the wart on the skin it remained fixed in the languages derived from the given stem.' o e
. have escaped the spell of that
ancient sibyl. there was retrogression. end.
?. an ancient form of language. Proceeding further mainly on the supposed primordiality of Sanskrit. p. On one side..
:
^
^
C
. But mythology is neither philosophy. he might have made out a reasonable
that in
case enough
. 8
tiS" 2 »
l0 in 0xford 88a 856 p 5 C P. like his namesake Ottfried. repudiated Heyne's formula. tionary " ab ingenii humani
substituting the
anti-evolu-
sapientia et
a
'
dictionis
-
abundantia "
WorkshTlZ *iR«n^f l° e. The disease consisted in the primitive tendency to make proper names out of names for phenomena. followed in 1871 by The Descent of Man. nor history. 240. And when he wrote that "nothing is excluded from mythological expression.
for certain racial
and geographical and other myths
can best be so explained. is in truth a disease of tB*„ ~ language.chi*> 8 f ro™ a German %(: passage ends with V. " ab ingenii humani
imbecillitate et a dictionis egestate ".
of
putting
it
2
that
myths
in
general originated in
language." 1 Three years later was published The Origin of Species. But Miiller's conception of mythology was now fully shaped.l< h the phrase "such unhallowed imputa'\ ireprmt the adjective becomes " gratuitous. neither history nor religion. tit Jt ^ hicb a * be ba of the ! lancuaS?» Lectures on the Science of Language. and preoccupied with the philological problems set up by any comparison of Sanskrit and Greek God-names. It is surprising that such a theory should ever be formulated without the theorist's seeing that the problem is shifted further back at once by the bare fact that the genders were attached to the words to begin with." Yet in the previous sentence he had. neither morals nor philosophy.—
MODEEN SYSTEMS
of
17
one myth-type in place of another.

to show that his doctrine was not what straightforward opponents represented it to be have not only brought upon him some criticisms of much asperity. in his Indogermanische Mythen. p. At times he has seemed to concede that the philological After describing comparative mythology as position is too narrow. conscious of having held them. holding to the gandharva-kentauros equation against his master. Lang is always
. Next to his metaphysic and his psychology. But Muller never lost the confidence with which he solved his early problems.
to put too
names that most weakens his Most candid mythologists will admit that they are apt
:
much faith in their own explanatory theories that they can hardly help coming at times to conclusions on a very incomplete induction. Erinnys and saranyu. but have plunged the subject in extreme confusion. 4 Id. 22. he was at Hence his attempts. Daphne and Ahana have been rejected as unsound by Mannhardt and others. under stress of times ready to resume them. attempts to subsume Schleiermacher's philosophy of religion into his mythology been more fortunate the philosophy and the psychology are alike inexpert and not a little of his philological mythology In particular." he protested that he had " never said that the whole of mythology can be explained " as " disease of language. ed. 484.
. the equations between gandharva and kentauros (Kuhn). Id. 86. to Science of Religion. Pure philology was after all Muller's specialty and he will probably stand on that when he has fallen on other issues." claiming only that " some parts of mythology 2 are " soluble by means of linguistic tests.
have in
1
many
cases lost the contagion. p.
—
reminding us. Mannhardt. it is his confidence of concrete
. " an integral part of comparative philology. p. as first cited. 1882. 3 Natural Religion.
1
11
. while his readers.
. . so many words that it is a pity that Comparative Mythology has 4 Nor have his got into any hands save those of Sanskrit scholars.
Thus the
false principle overrides the true
the sound conceptions passed on
by Muller himself have received development only at other hands and for lack of correlation in thinking he has repeatedly assailed his own positions though. 1889.
18
as
if
THE PKOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
it
were sapientia
to confuse the
:
meanings
of words. 252.g.
And
this
criticism applies
2 Introd." Yet he seems later to 3 and he says in oscillate between the extreme view and the broader.—
. on the other hand. is unsatisfying in detail.
myth-interpretation in terms of
authority. certain etymologies which Muller represented as scientifically certain e. H. In all probability this reaction has in turn gone too far and latterly we find E.. apart from all other issues. pp. 24. as Mr. controversy. Meyer.

That excellent scholar's
Mythology of the Aryan Nations (1st ed. express this convic3 tion. 326.
.
4
Published in the Revue Germanique.
1868. which needed no such backing." For this " necessity " Sir George could quote Miiller. Sir George Cox. ed. These facts supplied reason for a recasting of the mythological " scheme. and Tylor's Researches into the Early History of Mankind. Religion. and that though "the course of the day and the year"
covers a great deal of the matter. like himself. p. the most vivid eloquent work in mythological science. they were conscious beings also ? His very words would. Baudry.
Miiller
overbalanced theory of " disease of
—
—
:
:
apropos of the principle of
Polyonymy
cite
(or multiplying of
the natural elements).
1." In his second edition he admitted that since he wrote fresh proof had been given of the " influence of Semitic theology on the theology and religion of the Greeks ". who
in
his
essay
De V interpretation mythologique
1 See Schirren's Die Wander'sagen der Neuseelcinder und der Mauimythos. 21. or at
from a family of germs. Sir George
Cox
quite
needlessly grafted
language " on his on his part had classed his disciple as belonging to another school than his own the Analogical as distinct from the 2 and Sir George might profitably have made the Etymological same discrimination. 1882. was constructed on assumption that the " Aryan " heredity was decisively made once for all on the old lines and that the whole mythology of
. by way of recognizing that there is more than " one story in hand. 492." he went on to include the latter.
Miiller's
some other
principles
Further. pp. Anthropological as well as mythological research. For his own part he had rightly represented the primitive " savage " as necessarily personifying the things and could he help forces of nature to him they " were all living beings thinking that.
usual candour he proceeded to
names With the trenchant comment
for
his
of
M.
exposition. had been showing not merely Semitic influences on Greeks. the Eev. 2 Natural 3 Mythology of the Aryan Nations. 1870). 1856. but instead of noting that such a proposition dismissed a fortiori the theorem of " disease of language.
and
the
out
the
races covered by the
least
name
is
a development from one germ. 1865. following on the lines marked out by Fontenelle and De Brosses.MODEKN SYSTEMS
19
in some degree to the brilliant performance of his most powerful English disciple. Fev. and (2) a singular parallelism in the 1 mythology of races not known to have had any intercommunication. 484. p. but such an admission does not scientifically rectify the theoretic error embodied in his original thesis. by an inevitable necessity. but (l) an interplay of many other influences. found in the " Vedic and Homeric poets. there are
also at work.

There is certainly " no
antagonism " if only Muller's erroneous formula be dropped.
—
." a
20
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
As Baudry
countered Miiller before the " Hottentotic " school did. there was no " disease of language " in the case of secondary myths arising out of polyonymy.
. nor the sun launching arrows on his enemies. instead of undergoing that euthanasia. In other countries the linguistic misconception had a hampering effect even on good scholarly research. Breal.
. though his language made him call it a person and his descendants consequently regarded it as a person when they were able to describe it as inanimate. So many myths are inconsistent with themselves so many are but fumbling explanations
. which are found in the primitive poetry of all the Aryan From language. which creates them spontaneously withpeoples ? If this out man's taking care {sans que Vlnomme y prenne garde). In the circumstances it was natural that there should arise an anthropological reaction against the Sanskritist and " Aryan school. with its theory of family germs and inherited disease of language its forcing of a philological frame upon a psychological and its assumption that we can trace nearly every myth science with certainty to a definite natural origin. the early man knew the sun to be inanimate so. as in the case of the work of M. Hercule et Cacus etude de mythologie comparee (1863). early man never really personified anything but his more highly evolved posterity did. but simply failure of
or loss of knowledge. p. is still made to cover far more ground than Baudry's pretends to touch. Here we have Heyne's old conception of a species of allegorizing which was inevitable and yet not believed in theorem more puzzling than the phenomena it explains.
:
. merely because he had seemed to do In other words.
.
1
Work
cited. nor the storm for a for a divine warrior monster vomiting flames." be true. It is there laid down that " Never was the human race in its infancy.
. such as may happen in the case of a symbolic sculpture as well as of an epithet. and Baudry's substituted but as it happens Muller's. however vivacious and poetic may have been the first sallies of its imagination. capable of taking the rain which watered the earth for the milk of the celestial cows.
8. Sir George's solution was that " after all there is no real antagonism " between the two
memory
accounts of the matter
real
—a
resorted to by Miiller on his
mode own
of reconciliation rather too often account.
pointed out. nor the roll of the thunder for the Whence came all these noise of the aegis shaken by Jupiter images.

Tylor ranks himself among the adherents of Kuhn and Max Muller. Dr. preferring to stake everything on the sun. Primitive Culture. i.
5
Id. 299. . of the savage theory that the large animals whose skeletons are found underground must have been 3 burrowers. E. set forth by S. indeed. which colligate much of the anthropological science
on which alone a sound mythology can be founded. and verbal myth to be the secondary formation. 141 sq. and pronouncing " material myth to be the 4 primary. though Muller had rejected Kuhn's interpretations in terms of cloud and storm and thunder. et Religions. and that the interpreters are putting more into many Aryan myths than their framers did. 3rd ed.
The Movement of Anthropology
:
Tylor. Aryans " among all manner of savages." showing by many instances how the discovery of peculiar remains had given rise to fabulous interpretation. At the outset. already noted by Darwin. Tylor added to the keys already on the mythologist's bunch that of the " Myth of Observation.
opposition of students who.MODERN SYSTEMS
of ancient rituals of
. 298.
. But besides bringing into correlation many terms of folk-lore. proceed to show that what is represented as exquisite fancy among early Aryans is on all fours with the clumsy tales of Dyaks and Hottentots. p. he expressly recognized that " the doctrine of miracles became as it were a bridge along which mythology travelled from the lower into the higher
. as to some of the conditions under which primitive invention is developed. Tylor's
Researches into the Early History of Mankind (1865) and Primitive Culture (1871).
Sir
:
George Cox
finding
myths
there is the solid just like those of the "
§ 2. Dr. pp." Again. Tylor was usefully pointing towards the general truth that all myth is but a form of traditionary error and in his later work on Primitive Culture he further widened the conception. that such confidence is visibly excessive and there are always plenty of cool heads pleased to But there is more than mere conservatism arrayed shatter bubbles. 285. 306. iii (1908).
1 See Tylor. 1865. Reinach in
his Cultes. guarding against Muller 's limitary view. By including such ideas under the concept of myth.
21
which the meaning had been lost so many have been touched up so many embody flights of imagination that so many are primitively are not mere transcripts from nature stupid. B. as in the case. 4 Primitive Culture. 2 significantly coupling their names. . 8 Compare the interesting case of the twisted Celtic swords. 3rd ed. Dr. Mythes. against the confident lore of Muller and the brilliant ingenuity of
. i. * Researches into the Early History of Mankind. 5 while inconsistently separating mythology from religion.
To such
criticism a powerful lead
was given by Dr. so many have been combined. 326.

Principles of myth formation belonging properly to the mental state of the savage. it is a fallacy to make them stand for three faculties or provinces of intellectual life." he supplied a very
modes
" In its course there have been
of fact.
. that the doctrine " will be considered elsewhere as affecting philosophy
first
chapter on Mythology (ch. in his
summary
instances.
and that while we
may
conveniently
names cover aspects of the primary phenomena."
But here Animism
we must
recast the psychological concept
and statement. So much seems to be felt by Dr. the
fictions
conversion of speculative theories and
less substantial
into
pretended traditional events. and Eeligion yet another the two latter ranking as separate departments or processes of intellectual life.
no analytic gain of clearness. the definition by name and place given to any floating imagination. in the
of
Animism
viii).—
22
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
culture. one of the most conspicuous is this.
to do with its bearing on one thing or process. Mythology another. Tylor to the science of mythology and of hierology. recognizing
that Animism.
a
Id." 2
The main
11
logical or scientific flaw in the exposition is
itself
almost corrects
Eeligion. the formation of legend by exaggeration and perversion
metaphor by mistaken
still
realization of words. 416.
is
myth
—the
animating and
admitted in the earlier announce-
ment. the adaptation of mythic incident as moral example. and Eeligion are alike but aspects of the
general primitive psychosis
.
suggestive
list of its
Finally. p. and the incessant crystallization of
story into history. the stiffening of
examined the processes
of
animating and
personifying Nature. Such a conception is only one more
of
make any one
the three
unscientific severance of unity. 371. that so many of its approved historians demand from the study of mythology always
1
Id. the passage of myth into miracle-legend. to of " the proof of
the force and obstinacy of the mythic faculty. were by its aid continued in strong action in the civilized
world"
1
—
:
restricting
his
mediaeval Catholicism. yielding
but rather obscuring the problem. though his indirect service is unlimited. Mythology. of course.
and
but here
we have only
is
. To make further progress
religion. p.
mythology. Tylor when in his concluding chapter he remarks that " Among the reasons which retard the progress of religious history in the modern world. Such a position marks the limit to the direct service rendered by Dr.
—the separation
is
Animism. and being merely acted on by the first." which
is
one that from all this of the study of separately handled as the basis of Natural
involved in the very
first
Obviously Animism This
of the
processes above specified as constituting
personifying of Nature.

Confusion of this kind begins in the common error of making 11 morality " or " morals " equate with " goodness.
55. Tylor Con2 Animism. 1871.
The use
of
the word
countenance an anti"comparatively"
shows a half-consciousness
" tradition
of the essential error of the proposition. pp. 4 And though their " categorical imperative " can be
powerful enough where
1
it
comes
into play.
of religion as being "
they really
mean
independent of " or " divorced from " morality. Schultze.MODEEN SYSTEMS
weapons
1
23
to destroy their adversaries' structures.
it is
unmoral. or that a given religion embodies bad or one-sided morality. and whose religion and mythology are part of the 3 expression of their ethic.
447."
By
this deliverance Dr. the very existence of the rudest tribe would be impossible and indeed the moral standards of even savage races are to no small extent well-defined and praiseworthy.
The
of magic is a power of most
savages is at best so imperfect at many points that one anthropologist roundly asserts that " morality in our sense " cannot exist among them.
Ch.
3
Cp. vol. either that religious motives have corrupted
morals. 360.
ii. Where modern writers talk
distinction
may perhaps
. as cited.
xvii.
" Savage animism is almost devoid of that ethical element which to the educated modern mind is the very mainspring of practical religion."
or congeries of peoples or persons.
ii. but never tools to
Unfortunately the schematic fallacy trim and clear their own. that morality is absent from the life of the lower races. he writes that
." rather than the implications of the comment tends to stand as the
author's authoritative teaching
regrettably endorses a separatist view of primitive thought.
animism
is
not immoral." as if there were not such a thing as bad or inferior morality. Not.
it
often takes no account
2
Id.
4
Schultze. The lower
.
.
46. 43-46.
of propitiation
where the principle
no
less
than that
reflecting
standing hindrance to moral progress. The fallacy under notice reveals itself in That the spurious antithesis between "unmoral" and " immoral.
rites themselves stand on and the tradition and public opinion
Obviously the animistic beliefs and
and public opinion
":
in all cases alike subsist in virtue of being those of the
same series whose ethic tells of their religion and mythology. as WithI have said. comparatively independent of the animistic beliefs and rites which exist around them.
cluding his exposition of
and in one other regard Dr.
p.
of character-types
at times be serviceable in the discrimination but in the present connection it is untenable. p. Tylor has kept in
evolutionary sociology. out a code of morals.
And both
of these explanations hold in the case of savage religion. But these ethical laws stand on their own ground of tradition and public opinion. Der Fetischismus.

This was the opportunity of He concedes.
licence.
of a
low
religion.
24
of
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
many
things which in civilized ethics are reckoned primordial.
1
This means. The only justification offered for it is the familiar " Indeed. in view of the Second Epistle to the Christianity. Lawson.
Dwelling on the bias of
:
eastern religion to hysteria.
It results that a
some points
of
and the prestige of religion tends to fix the low ethic.
."
was difficult to bring the first converts to the implying that success was attained later. Lawson airms the contrary. not that their code is " independent of " morality.
and that the massacre.
:
—
:
morality as a religious obligation.
true that the tales of the Greek
Gods countenanced sex
.
when immorality was
morality "
is
freely
imputed to their gods. and iniquitous tribal fanaticism Is Christianity then Christian doctrine of salvation is antinomian.
40.
Christian.
a
P. a wholly new religion had to be found. but simply that it is extremely ill-developed. shares in the shaping correlative to it.
P. that "
it
3
new
point of view. "
limited to
valid only
If it
it
the sphere of the sexual relation
and the proposition
is
which
it
holds good of the Christian religion. J.
divorced from ethics
?
Mr. Christian presuppositions and maintain confusion even among non-theological Thus Mr. many or most of those who adhere to it and this is the case with the religion of the savage no less than with the religion of the
. Yet
47-55. in
.
effect. it would have been hard for the ancients to regard thesis
this as
On
promote
. 2 Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Beligio?i (1910) pronounces concerning ancient ethic that " seemingly religion and morality were to the Greek mind divorced.
must be no
less true that the tales of
Yahweh countenanced murder. he goes on
" If
then morality was ever to be imposed and sanctioned by religion. fraud.
a
i
See the details cited by Schultze. 40.
on other historical issues. And their religion is A low ethic.
In reality it is bringing to bear a higher as against a lower ethic and it in turn will be found at points to defy the higher ethical Somewhere. involving lawlessness."
in the sense in
is
Here. it is coterminous with the ethic of tests. however.. to begin with."
Corinthians. or rather had never been wedded. C. in his valuable work on Modem inquirers. new religion whose shapers are scrupulous upon conduct seems to be introducing a new correlation. Religion was concerned only with the intercourse of man and god the moral character of the man himself and his relations with his fellows were outside the religious sphere " a strange deliverance from a Greek scholar. pp.

the existence of evil. xii.
p. 3.
1908. p.
Cp. for individuals
of
and
for
of
for the race.
Compare Miss Harrison's own comment. fed by unpleasing things. is but a gradual transmutation of
every other
primordial
animal tendencies." while that of do ut abeas " contains at least the recognition
of
one great mystery
of
life. " I give that thou may est give.
on the unfairness of Sokrates in the
Enthyphron. " but
now
(!)
religion at least enjoins. in the name of mere science. By Mr." can be and historically has been. in late and early societies alike.
introd. sex.
. And even this solution is not rightly realized if to the recognition of the lowness of the moral level in so many religious minds.
fying grades of
1
P.
and
late."
1
So that
Whether Dr. pp. And why we should proceed to certificate as something higher the religion of fear. but their confluence on a low mental level.
the observance of a moral code which includes the Eighth
Comthe
mandment
The
thesis has utterly collapsed. if
"
it
cannot aliuays enforce.
aspect of
we do not join the remembrance that ethic. the rigid assertion that " the ritual embodied in the formulary do ut des is barren of spiritual
—
—
content. 3 If this holds normal sympathy must have been "born of usage."
2
In the daily
life
men a conscious reciprocity which begins as do ut des. reciprocities of men.
Why
Eighth Commandment should be stressed in this connection it is hard to guess. even in professed evolutionists. A rigid ethicism is apt to exclude friendship in the animal world. in which beauty grows from a lowly root. 7. like human life. it should in theory. Lawson's own account. Thus there is reason to deprecate. be recognized in the case of the imagined reciprocities of men and Gods. 2nd ed. Love itself has all its roots parenthood. it falls to the rationalist. the matrix of a more loving and lovely sympathy.MODERN SYSTEMS
25
" The frailties in the next breath he freely admits that of the Greek character remain indeed such as they always were ": adding only the
plea.
2
3
Prolegomena
to the
Study
of
Greek Religion. means not separation between religion and morality. of do ut abeas. by Jane Ellen Harrison. Tylor conIn any case. when we are classithe
religious belief. to end the confusion by pointing out that moral incoherence. 31.
3. early
!
and morality remain eighteen hundred years of Christianity
religion
is
" divorced " in Christian Greece after
templated this deduction
doubtful. the living sense of this truth. To lie or even to steal
:
is
accounted morally venial and intellectually admirable. even in the admirable study of Greek religious evolution by Miss Harrison. the lacking commandment of the decalogue is still lacking in Greece " Honesty and truthfulness are not the national virtues.

Christian prepossessions must no longer be allowed to obscure the manifold yet simple process of psychic evolution. a mythologist as separatist as Dr.
To suppose that people who maintained a form of human reciprocity with the Gods did not recognize the existence of evil is but to make one more illicit severance in the tissue of mental life.
" I give that thou
This
in fact. Tylor himself on the question of religion and mythology is able to controvert him as regards his separation of religion and ethic. the earlier
mayest remove hence. Tylor for once in a way diverged. Spencer decided to make all religious concepts pass through the single ivory gate of Dreams. Tylor pronounced "unmoral": so surely does one error of classification entail other and contrary errors. p. growth This is the very stage
is
of religion. reducing all forms of
of his great
due course
of
religious beliefs. from which Dr. Flinders Petrie's sketch of the type by whom "Evil is hated so really that the thought of it. the
which Dr. either to sigh or to enjoy the moral sunshine but again we are dealing merely with variations of balance and temperament and when we recall how for ages the religion of fear has blotted out the sun and steeped man's earth in blood.26
THE PKOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
is. Coming in the
undertaking to the problem of the evolution he does indeed necessarily posit unity in the psychological basis of credences. is instinctively avoided " {Personal Religion in Egypt before Christianity. As we shall see. Dr. The
of religion
justification offered for the
new
classification is surely fallacious. the ethical or "spiritual" discrimination under notice is apt to seem fantastic as
conscious of the constant presence of evil
to be
more
ethically sensitive
than
is
. Herbert Spencer. 1909. having already well established the psychic unity of the thinking faculty or process from its lowest to its highest stages.
Once more we turn for safe scientific footing to the scientific method.
1 Compare. Always the trouble is arbitrary classification and limitation.
The fatality is peculiarly striking in the case of the greatest co-ordinating thinker of his time.
§ 3.
of a stage anterior to
hard to understand. set up by the deliverer.
A
priori Evolutionism
:
Spencer. or anticipation of it. 19). But with all the results of Comparative Mythology thus far before him. illusory opposition set up between two aspects of a coherent process and we seem to be delivered from one obstacle only to collide with another. however.
a classification of
human
progress. To be
asa" mystery " is perhaps he who turns his back on it when possible." and cruder form
formal reciprocity. with all these sequelae of contradiction and incoherence.
.
.
.

yet represented them as getting their myths by sheer
Spencer rightly stipulated that
all
2 "under the conditions in which they occur. No one. was clearly put by Fontenelle two hundred years ago.
Thus mythology
it
stem. The word " rational. who esteemed his work. reveals a general propensity
prior to that special development
Thus again the science
science of Hierology. or used the language of
convention. insisting on a dream-origin for ghosts. § 52. indeed. But the dream." of course.
is
of
on which he rests the whole case. those of the South Pacific— often have the air of mere remembered dreams and Spencer. 1876-82. as the
result of a great thinker's determination to shape the doctrine of
evolution in terms of his
own
specific thought. again.
has given new coherence to the conception of the inter-play of subjective and objective consciousness in primitive thought. Many myths—e.
of a single
mode
of error. are able out
subordination of other men's discoveries..
He
Where
gift of
Muller.g. where inductive research shows
to
where
in particular the study of
animal
life. he
Principles of Sociology.
is
On
the constructive side.
MODERN SYSTEMS
27
1
the God-idea to a beginning in the primitive idea of ghosts or souls.
recognized the play of the ideas of ghost
. was believed in by such reasoning faculties as savages possessed. has better established the principle of continuity in the
process of intelligence. must not be held to imply that the beliefs were always reached by a process of reasoning. Mythology. Id.
.
piece
Here. Tylor had fully and soul in ancestorworship. to the exclusion or
Dr.
. the primitive Welt-Anschauung is envisaged as all of a but the manifold of myth and worship is traced to the root
. and the bearing of ancestor.
beliefs are. and from him the principle was accepted by Comte.
is poised on a single have had many and which Spencer was so
.
a sane and sober intellect" in the
primitive
lowest men. This. it should be noted.
. who set up a false separatism where he does not.worship on other forms but he had also recognized as a primary fact the spontaneous personifiSpencer on cation by early man of objects and forces in Nature. his side escaped the false dichotomy between ethics and religion and he rightly brings myth and religion in organic connection yet his forcing of all myth-sources back to the one channel of ancestorworship and the conception of ghosts has given as large an opportunity to reaction as did any of the limitary errors of professed and specialists with anti-scientific leanmythologists before him ings. Spencer's service
clear
and
great. which is the basis of the
confronted by a principle of schism.. once recounted. should have dwelt on this possibility.
of his fallacy to
make
capital for a fresh version of supernaturalism. in the act of insisting on the
presence of the "divine
verbal blundering. §§ 52-204. rational.
specially pledged to take into account." Where other students had either waived the relation of the higher
theology to the lower.
i
2
.

the sea.
.
The Biological Correction.
§ 64. yet he overrides their reasoning as he overrides
If
. though superficially like the rest. the sun.
. who lay to Spencer's hand.
5
§
61. the trees and plants.
The point
2
argues
that
. he decisively asks
" a small clan of the Semitic race
whether
had given
to
it
super-
naturally a conception which.
§ 73. were all instances of more or less unexplained motion. Id.
§ 65.
reached through his dreams. then. motion be a ground for Animism with animals.
. For him." to turn his error to the
who
this though the correction of his fallacy had been and conclusively made by a student of his own school.
Darwin's clue is given in his story of how his dog. but personalize them ? That problem had been put and the answer given by both Comte and Darwin. the rivers. the clouds." Hence he must have had a fresh basis for his known Animism and this came by way of his idea of ghost or soul.
2 id.
Id. and had been indicated before him by other evolutionists. growled at it as he would
1
4
Id. many of the phenomena of Nature were thrust upon him without his having the knowledge needed to make such discrimination. and cannot be supposed to confound the animate and the inanimate " without cause.
account of theirs
—
clearly
§ 4.
of the animistic process
has enabled partizans of that other
see abnormality in Hebrew lore and who describe the myth-making process as " irrational. the winds. and stars.
the crux.
3
Id. What should he do.
at issue is fully indicated by Spencer himself when he sub-human animals distinguish between the animate and the inanimate. seeing an open parasol suddenly moved by the wind. though for them motion in objects is apt to connote life that the ability to class apart the animate and the 3 inanimate is inevitably developed by evolution. 5
But on the face of his own argument. the rain. and if the instinct be passed on to primitive man with the burden of effecting a closer discrimination among things. since failure would mean starvation and that accordingly primitive man must have 4 had a tolerably definite consciousness of the difference.28
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
first
consistently traces one process of traditionary error from
last.
to
tiate
Where professed mythologists continue expressly to differenHebrew from all other ancient credences. moon. was And yet his limitary treatin substance absolutely unlike them ?"*
ment
order.
§
202. Spencer has gone astray.

being unable to conceive separate properties. n.
§ 46. the savage is spontaneously led to ascribe personality. iii. in the an error to conceive the savage as theorizing about surrounding appearances that in point of fact the need for explanations of them does not occur to him. West African Studies.
else
He theorizes about the why should he ever
reach animism at all. Bastian. and stars. Der Mensch in der Geschichte. ed.
admitted fetichism in so far as fetichism consists in animizing inanimate things which are moved* Thus his statement that fetichism is shown by both induction and deduction to follow instead of preceding other superstitions
for
is
already cancelled. pp. 145. which animizes the suddenly moved stone in his kennel.
savage's part
. 1860. Descent of Man."
4
One answers: Quite
feels
:
so. unless they should become
2 Work cited. as
its
it is only on the its quasi-personality author admits. Strictly. to begin
ghost-theory. 18-23. 2nd ed."
And having begun to ascribe personality where there is motion without consciousness. ii.
in so far as he speculates about them. Fetichism negates pantheism as does polytheism. In the text the word On the other hand.
It is a self-contradiction
to argue that the savage. to winds and waters. fetichism as we know it is a comparatively advanced spiritism. i.
forces that affect or seem to affect
him. And it would not avail for Spencer to reply that he had already avowed the tendency of the animal to associate life with motion. on which Signor Vignoli had carefully 2 experimented. 101-4) will not bear analysis. Cp.
but the solution
is
simple. to trees
and
plants. pantheism (Miss Kingsley. in which objects are regarded as temporarily inhabited by special God-forces. probably does not animize the wind and the rain. ch. that he assumes " two entities. In stating the case as to the animal he had already
. This is certainly borne out in a measure by much evidence as to lack of speculation on the
Here Spencer has providently
5
it is
. 1901.
§ 163. he might proceed to ascribe personality or consciousness where there point
is
no motion. though on
this issue
we may
essential
grant the ghost-theory to have a special footing.
The
savage makes no such detour
with. moon.
.
Id.
1
3
J
Principles of Sociology. but that this cannot lead to a fetichism which animizes the non-moving.. the thesis that fetichism amounts to is used in a more general sense.
is
But the
that to sun.
1
29
is
This clue
systematically
Science
developed in the essay of Signor Tito Vignoli on
(1882). with the ghost-iclea or without it ? The dog. and takes for granted
:
he sees or
motion.
proposition that
set up another defence.MODERN SYSTEMS
at a suddenly appearing strange animal. ch.
Myth and
where Spencer's theory is respectfully but firmly treated as a revival of Evemerism and where myth is shown to root in the animal tendency in question. however. is unable to imagine " a second invisible entity as causing
him
the actions of the visible entity.

a myth is a wrong hypothesis made to explain a phenomenon.
The
Spencer. " was originally
based on the divine first Principle. Vignoli. That ghost ideas when formed should affect and develop prior animistic ideas is likely enough what must be negated is the proposition that they are the absolute or sole matrix of all mythology and superstition. gives the true form or standingground for mythological science. he tells us. Jevons.
And with
a fine unconsciousness Signor Vignoli supplies
us later on with a sheaf of such hypotheses of his own. P.
must by
Spencer's
early
own admission involve the animizing of the sun by the savage.
still
adhered to altogether fanciful and anthropo-
Cp.
30
violent. p. indeed. 3 Work cited. be it explicit or implicit.
old fatality.
four-square to
all
the facts. B. the light. Introd.
the sun's motion otherwise
and that is the gist of the dispute.
is
freshly illustrated with an almost
of the
startling force
by Signor Vignoli.
they will doubtless continue to obscure the science.
that
and it may be or the river. to whatever people and class they may belong. complemented by all the data of anthropology and mythology.
1
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
. pp. 3.
sets. p." That is to say. independently of the survival of old superstitions. to the Hist. Jevons arrives (p. p. Christianity." 3 and that it is "in the first instance identical and 4 confounded with the scientific faculty. 19 and citations. to which one portion of the Semitic race had attained by intellectual evolution. Cp. and
again.. and by the acumen of the great men who brought this idea to perfection ".
" the
Semitic people passed from the primitive ideas of
of
mythology to the conception
while other races
1
the absolute and infinite Being. a process. Taking myth as a form of traditionary error. 4 Id. 57-67. Unfortunately the rectification has been ignored by those mythologists who are concerned to retain and until either the shadow or the substance of supernaturalism
:
. who has acquired no knowledge enabling him to explain
. Dr. 33. 1896. and the darkness many savages could also go through life without doing so on 2 But the simple noting that the sun rises and their own account. Thus rectified.
2
.
the naturalist position
is
restated in
full. of Belig. the corrector
psychology of
His thesis includes the perfectly accurate propositions w that the mythical faculty still exists in all men. Spencer's teaching. we note that such error can arise in many ways and when we have noted all the ways we have barred supernaturalism once for all. 410) at a complete contradiction of it— for another purpose..
if
followed by any speculative
reflection whatever. citing his Dottrina razionale del Progresso. After stressing this truth for his immediate purpose. or
a practice.

" is merely literary mythology and " the intelSignor lectual constitution of the race " is a psychological myth.
a
proud self-consciousness. the Babylonian mythology had not been recovered. 248). have been as much ManGods as Jesus and he has no suspicion that Samson and half-a3 dozen other figures in the Bible had been Man-Gods till they were Evemerized by the Yahwists. See J." But this view is completely negatived by the records of the worship of Samas or Samsu in the Babylonian system. the Eskimos. p. Eng. a constant aspiration after grand achievements. into the society of the Gods.
2
Id. But there is an element of new myth in Signor Vignoli's statement over and above these historic errors he pictures the " Semitic and Chinese races " as having " soon freed themselves from their mental bonds " in virtue of the fact that their " inner symbolism of All the mind" was "less tenacious. they were certainly not the Hebrews. 6 Cp. He even becomes so conventionally mythological as to rank among
. p. and the Eijians lacked the
l
6
endowment
Goldziher indeed writes (Mythology among the Hebrews. Ideen zu einer allgemeine Mythologie der alten Welt. and was not an " absolute idea". and monotheistic doctrine was current in Egypt long before the Semites had any. Signor Vignoli accepts the myth with the Babylonian mythology before him. Goldziher. in fine. On the other
hand. To generalize " the Semite " and " the Aryan " as doing this the idea and that is but to make new myths.Wagner. Signor Vignoli
is
so oblivious of the facts of comparative
mythology as to consider it a specially " Aryan " tendency to desire 2 a Man-God. and the Kenan myth that " the Semites " lacked the faculty 4 for mythology and to these he has added fresh sociological and psychological and literary myths in the manner of Auguste Comte. 180. all of Semitic manufacture." As if the Assyrians. When Renan committed himself. p. :
:
:
." this is simply sociological myth the reduction of a vast and incoherent complex to an imaginary simplicity and unity of movement. Vignoli.MODERN SYSTEMS
1
:
31
morphic ideas of the Being. 1808. and productive.
3
Id. tr. 181. the Egyptians. Herakles is late in joining the Greek Gods because he is an imported hero. 4 The thesis is really much older than Eenan. if " Semites " had the idea as early as Egyptians.
. p. that Samson never got so far as to be admitted. has taken over without scrutiny a group of current historical myths. the Chinese.
the Hebrews.
. intense. an energy of thought and action. Or. and a haughty contempt for all 6 other nations.J. Samson in the Bible has been Evemerized into a mortal. He has forgotten that Attis and Adonis and Herakles and Dionysos. Such a phrase as of Christianity arose in the midst of the Semitic people through him whose name it bears. pp. 250-7. 5 Id. like Herakles. including the current conception of the Gospel Jesus. 175." Here be old myths in point of fact the Jewish God ivas anthropomorphic.
the "peculiar characteristics" of
"our"
[the
"Aryan"]
race.

recast
in separate treatises. despite aberrations
and
while general principles are being obscured in the attempts to state them. indeed. 2nd ed. Decharme of the brilliant Zoological Mythology of the astronomical and other studies of of Signor de Gubernatis Mr. Jr. Eobert Brown. and
-
1
1890. This holds good of J. F. it connects Mannhardt's and Smith's data with a vast mass of cognate lore. though it sets up a superficial classification in defining Mythos as a w onderful It story dealing with a God. that every systematic survey of
contemporary lower races. edited by Dr. Omissions.
32
in question. 1900. and partly on those of the late Professor Eobertson Smith. despite the undue confidence of some of its interpretations (as that Joseph of is certainly the Eain.
.
§
5. Salomon Eeinach. which as usual were ignored in England till long after they were accepted elsewhere. and Eachel the Cloud) the theorem of the historical critics that Eachel and Leah and their handmaids may be myths of tribal groups and colonies and of a multitude of general surveys and monographs notably the admirable collection of papers by M. et
T
. expanded.
. Cultes. further. Evasions.
Fresh Constructions. in course of production. gains continue to be made. No more truly learned monograph has ever been written in 1 mythology than Dr.
Happily. of Goldziher's Hebrew Mythology.
.
and practices
of the
safe to say... Proceeding partly on the memorable researches of Mannhardt.
THE PEOGBESS OF MYTHOLOGY
Evidently
we must
set the mythologist to catch the
mythologist. rites.
. Jacob the Night.
.
. and Sage as a story dealing with men.)
—down
to the
monumental
Ausfilhrliches
Lexihon der griechischen und rbmischen Mythologie.
new ed. Reversions. Lauer's posthumous System der griechischen Mythologie (1851). are
most
of the first-hand researches of the past generation into the
beliefs.
up and Of such a nature.
. new researches are made from time to time with so much
learning and judgment as to give solid help towards clearing
re-establishing the general principles.. Mythes. Frazer's Golden Bough.
now
two vols. It is Mythology has
served to clear up
of general
some
details as well as to facilitate the recognition
law by later students.
. three vols. Eoscher. 3 torn.
—
Religions (1908. . Yet probably no survey is yet sufficiently comprehensive and even the most masterly researches are found at times to set up obstacles to the full comprehension of the total mythological process. holds good of the Griechische Gbtterlehre of Welcker of the admirably comprehensive Griechische Mythologie and Bomische Mythologie of the eminently sane and scholarly Mythologie de la of Preller Grece Antique of M.

who is at once the God and his victim also by a ram. who however was exhibited as rising from a lotos plant.God could be represented by a bull animal sacrifices being a link between the Vegetation.
—seen deduc—
should the Vegetation. as if that were excluded once for all by proving him to be a Vegetation-God. Dr. Mtiller (2te Aufl. Dr.Spirit and the human sacrifice which impersonated him. in particular the Sun-God. G. are Vegetation-Gods. as again was Dionysos. Mithra. He becomes for once vigorously polemical in his attack on the thesis that Osiris was a Sun-God.God be born at the winter solstice save as 3 Again. cvi. who.
Dr. Frazer very having been identified with the Sun-God? scientifically explains how Dionysos the Vegetation. though
the bush. Frazer shows. It probably stands for another process of syncretism. and was thereby named to the last. would
1 The recognition of this. as was the Babe-Sun-God Horos.
certain old
D
. The answer is that he was both and that such a synthesis was inevitable.) sets down the latter to the jealousy of the Delphian priests.
But
there
accrues in some degree the old drawback of undue limitation of Eightly intent on establishing a hitherto ill-developed theory."
Yahweh
does. A few unquestioned facts will put the case in a clear light. Yet they too are both born on December 25. 1867) as regards Mexican cults. 3 It is noteworthy that Apollo had two birthdays—at the winter solstice for the Delians. p. Yet again. Yahweh and Moloch were represented and worshipped as bulls. so far as the records go. Frazer has unduly ignored the conjunction
and inductively to be normal between the concept of the Vegetation-God and that of others. and at the vernal equinox for Delphi. 2 Now.MODEEN SYSTEMS
constructs a unitary theory with signal skill and subtlety. why
tively to be inevitable
. like Dionysos. the mere
identification of different
same animal.
33
In Dr. was primordially associated with the Sun. indeed. being clearly enough made in the Geschichte der amerikanischen Urreligionm of J.
a
whole province
of
mythology becomes newly
of cases fall easily into line
and henceforth multitudes
in terms of a true insight into primitive psychology. Frazer's hands
intelligible
. § 12. Christ and Krishna. is mythically born on December 25.
Vegetation-Gods. appear
in
Now. Emeric-David (Introduction. and it would be hard to show that they were primarily
.
But then Mithra also was represented by a bull.
. 2 See hereinafter. however
in the ancient
cults
. is not new. Dionysos and Adonis. the cult of the Vegetation
1
Spirit. clearly because of the winter solstice and the rising of the constellation of the Virgin above the horizon.
principle of mythological interpretation.
different might be the original world inevitably lead to some identification of the even were it not equally inevitable that the Sun should be
Gods with the pretexts. but the principle had not been properly brought to bear on mythology in general before Mannhardt.

fire
finally. Frazer had done explicit ethical teaching superadded. to the recognition of the crucified Jesus as the annually slain Vegetation-God
But Jesus is buried in a rock-tomb. ii.
34
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
the case of Osiris there
recognized as a main factor in the annual revival of vegetation. born at the winter solstice it is as Sun-God (though also as carrying 3 over the administrative machinery of the Jewish Patriarch ) that he
on the Sacred Tree. Such is the nature. The whole line of Dr.
i
Id. pp. "Presbyter" (New York.
work was the psychology of the process ascertained.
for
For Dr.
§ 18.. See hereinafter.
—
. 1876). § 7. The Gospel Myths. i. or the Art and Symbolism of the Primitive Church as Witnesses and Teachers of the one Catholic Faith and Practice. Frazer's own admission. Frazer's investigation leads up. on which Dionysos also rides. his consort. See the author's Studies in Beligious Fallacy. this by Dr.
Such questions come to a focus when we bring comparative mythology to bear on surviving religion. Part III. Once more the expert is unduly narrowing the relations under which
he studies his object. Lundy.
. indeed. Its point of view " It is a most singular and is thus put by its author in his preface
:
4
his
2 See Pawn Christ s. Frazer. also hereinafter.
3
1st Div.
. The Gospel Myths. with some Judaic elements as nucleus and some Not till Dr. is to shut out one of the most obvious of the natural lights on the subject. 1st Div. In is the further obvious cause that Isis. 21.
it is as Sun-God that. ed. as is 2 and it is as Sun-God that he is the rock-born Sun-God Mithra. Monumental Christianity. of the religious consciousness that it is possible for some to recognize the exterior fact without any readjustment of religious belief.
Osiris. To the literature of Christian Origins there has been contributed the painstaking work. Christ cult. Part III.
something else than the Goddess his the sun enters the vegetation cult
1
as standing for the
stored in the sacred fire-sticks. like surrounded by Twelve Disciples he is to judge men after death a thing not done by Adonis it is as Sun-God passing through the zodiac that he is represented successively in art and lore by the Lamb and the Fishes and it is as Sun-God that he enters Jerusalem before his death on two asses —the ass and foal of one of the Greek signs of Cancer (the turning-
is
. 164-5.
The God must needs stand
spouse. is an Earth-Goddess. in short. though unavowedly. § 19. . Part III.
point in the sun's course). by John P. Divine Institutes. 1890. 4 Lactantius.
But
to
assume that only in that roundabout way would primitive man allow for the obvious influence of the Sun on vegetation. was a synthesis of the two most popular
The Pagan myth-motives. 369.

et Religions. that the Christian faith." On the other hand the author holds by the Incarnation. This theory.
p. Lundy imperfectly indicates— imperfectly. there is to be noted a marked tendency on the part of philologists to revert to etymology
colligation
is
purpose
1
Work cited. because he has taken no note of many Pagan works of art which are the real
originals of episodes in the Gospels
What
—has
been
set
down with
great
theoretic
clearness
by M. 1905. passed on from one country to another. fully
myth
of explanation. 11. 65. It reveals a unity of religion. pp. Eeligion. as being " a more intelligible revelation than Deism. Reinach.MODEEN SYSTEMS
35
astonishing fact. No one can be more astonished at this than the author himself. W. and may attach to a God of one nation stories which hitherto belonged to another nation. T. p. 6 The Nattve Baces °f South Africa. Clermont-Ganneau
if
in
his L'Imagerie
is
iconologique chez les Grecs (1880). therefore. 346. finds its parallel. fi. has
probably occurred independently to many inquirers 2 in any case it is a principle of the most obvious importance.
. among whom the
:
of myths with pictures which had no mythological seen arising in a quite natural fashion. as embodied in the Apostles' Creed. how a mere object of art with a mythological purport (as in a group or series of figures). 113-4. Ger. or Pantheism. Stow. Antiquities of Egypt. See also the R.°. Mythes. and cp. See again
'
.V il Collignon in n 11 s Myt hologie figuree de la Grece. as given by man's Maker. It furthermore points to but one Source and Author. M.£ iqIo f aa *?' It is endorsed. . Theal. 1841. albeit he has really modified
at
some points
his old sectarian conception. in the different
systems of Paganism here brought under review. 3 As against these important advances.
. is no cunningly devised
fable of Priest-craft. or dimly foreshadowed counterpart. article by article. which M. S. 1884. may give rise to a new
Phenicienne
et la mijthologie
there shown." 1 Thus the good presbyter's conscientious reproductions of Pagan emblems serve to enlighten others without deeply enlightening himself. sought to be developed in this work. and shows that the faith of mankind has been essentially one and the same in all ages. It not for the first time. CiUtes. Clermont-Ganneau. Heidenzeit (1876).
Mr.
™
ioo
!
. or all that mere naturalism which goes under the name of Eeligion. by G. S. Quite independent corroboration of the theory comes from students of the rock-paintings and folk-lore of the Bushmen of South Africa. ed. especially in the investigation of the myths of the Gospels.
2
all
11 S G ottesdienst des Nordens wiihrend der £e&/ rr den la <|ependent statement of the principle. Clermont-Ganneau ably establishes by some clear instances.
. •
The derivations of Christian myths from Pagan works of art hereinafter offered were made out before I had seen or heard of the work of M. again. by G. but
it
is
rather the abiding conviction of
all
mankind. i.

1891) turns on the same conception. It is clear. that of phallicism. is the hidden truth of the my thus to be discovered. that every line of research into human evolution is fitted to elucidate every other. we are hardly even within sight of such a socioThere it is still necessary to logical method as regards mythology. 1889) is wholly in terms of the supposed root-meanings of names in ancient myth and the Prolegomena zur Mythologie als Wissenschaft. and through the knowledge of the myth-language of the Greek poets. but
religion
which in some hands is indeed which certainly entered largely into ancient and symbol.
seek for broader grounds of interpretation
if
we
are to
We must comprehend
the bulk of the
Finally.
the
intellectual
and
the
material
conditions of the process are studied in their connections throughout
raises
Every problem of religious growth in a given society problems of economics and problems of political psychology. entitled Bivers
of Life (1883). with.
taken. Thus far. a further insistence on Ottfried Miiller's doctrine that it is necessary to study the myth in Dr.
strive for the application of ordinary scientific tests as against the
pressures of conservatism and mediatory reaction. however.
and
in this particular connection
prudery ends in facilitating
nearly every species of general error above dealt with.—
:
36
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
as the true and perfect "key to all mythologies. of the play of a principle
much
overstrained. Wendorff (Berlin. While some inquirers
exaggerate. and that there will be no final
anthropological science until
all history. und Lcxihon dcr Mythensprache of Dr.
concerning others philologists are hopelessly at variance. Forchthe light of the topography of its place of origin." The criticism of such claims is (l) that different all myths tended more or less to find acceptance in localities. : .
.
But
science cannot afford to be
prudish
. Forchhammer (Kiel. hammer's motto runs " Only through the knowledge of the local and chronological actualities in myths. account
phenomena at must be
all. Some have an obvious meaning
. others evade the issue. W. P. indeed. with or without synthesis of local topographical details even Semitic myths finding currency and adaptation in Greece and (2) that the hope to reach certainty about the original values of mythic names all round is vain. in which the evolution of religious ideas
in
presented
broad relation with the general movement of the species. in any professedly systematic
survey.
subject can be handled at once scientifically
That the and instructively has
is
been shown by the massive work of General Forlong. however." Thus the Erkldrung alios Mythologie of Herr F.

and with a limpidity which is no small advantage in controversy. Lang's books make amends for setting up needless friction. Mr.
and Religion (1889.
37
Mr. Andrew Lang. we can credit it with coherence and a general reasonableness.
In large part they stand on the sure ground of evolution and comparative anthropology and they do unquestionably make out their oft-reiterated main thesis. 1824. Lang on the Origin of Beligion. and the Appendix. Mr. Lang may on this score claim to have established all he sought negatively to prove." Be la Beligion. however.
professes to abide. While. either in or out of connection with a faculty 3 possessed by the very same savages for " supernormal" knowledge a theory so completely out of relation with his earlier exposition
primitive stage of
understand or expound the latter. p. we must for Taking his earlier mythology by itself. This main
If there is any positive no one now seems to dispute.
. 1 sometimes irritates scholars on the other side. ii. not only for the method of his handling of the point supposed to be in dispute.
Ritual. concerning which a variety of " explanations " have been offered by mythologists. it is to be found in Mr. Lang to certain of the cruder Greek myths. has been laid down not only by Fontenelle but by such an influential modern
writer as Benjamin Constant. the paper. xvii. if not the main body.
is
The protagonist. otherwise condensed in his article on Mythology Written with a vivacity which in the Encyclopedia Britannica. he in turn is open even there to some criticism. that myth has its roots in savage lore and savage fancy. but for his failure to carry out to its proper conclusions the evolutionary principle by which he
Mythology
that.MODEEN SYSTEMS
§ 6.
some of his doctrine. Lang and Anthropology.
It is thus necessary to rectify the course of the
science
by
calling in question
To begin
with. de l'lnde. by the fresh impulse they
give to mythological study. revised ed. Mr. of the mediatory school Mr.
1
and that
He
has been over-solicitous to create and
2 It
See Professor Regnaud's Comment naissent les mythes ? 1898. and that all bodies of myth preserve traces of their barbarous origin a proposition specially applied by Mr.
. to
the time keep
them
apart. et de la Gaule. whose Custom and Myth (1884) and Myth. counter-theory. in the author's Studies in Beligioics Fallacy. Mr. 3 Cp. 1899) set forth his earlier views of the subject. who put in the forefront of his great treatise the proposition that "la plupart des notions qui constituent le culte des sauvages se retrouvent enregistrees et consolidees dans les religions sacerdotales de l'Egypte.
—
such as that of Kronos and Saturn. Lang's own later and obscurer argument that a high " religion " arises in the most
2
position
—
of
life.
. pref p. Lang has in the opinion of some
of us over-
stated the stress of the difference between his point of view
of the solar school.

hension."
Now. Where Mr.
George expressly points to the primeval savage as the first and myth-maker and he uses phrases similar to Mr. would naturally figure for Mr.
Inasmuch
as Sir George
Cox and Max
Miiller
more
and
Sir
or less definitely accept the principle of evolution in
affairs.
the former in particular constantly
human comparing savage myth
no good ground
folk-lore with the classic mythologies. taking
Darwin's theory as substantially proved. Lang and some of the rest of us though we do not all go as far in Pyrrhonism as Mr.
ii. those of
difficulty. Fontenelle's sentence
may
really
be made an indictment against the method and performance of Mr. but it is science to understand what led Greeks and Phoenicians to imagine these follies. his main tenet is not only perfectly compatible with most of their general doctrine. But Mr. there is
for saying that they ignore or reject
the anthropological method.
ed. found no more
in those of Dr.
Lang himself but it certainly does not tell against Sir George Cox.
324.
as
we
shall see. As a matter of fact.
ii. he was entitled only to call in question given interpretations.—
38
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
continue a state of schism. purpose of Sir George Cox's work is to " understand what led Greeks and Phoenicians to commit these follies ": the only trouble is that. "It is not science to fill one's head with the follies of Phoenicians and Greeks. in the opinion of Mr.
to the study of
Indeed.
A 2nd
. and even now it is beyond their compretypical
. Tylor. in Sir George Cox's pages than
where the mental
1st ed. Casaubon " in this connection. Lang has made of these divergences a ground for challenging the whole body of the work.
. and Religion.
App." he goes on "A better and briefer system of mythology could not be devised but the Mr. Lang's concerning the psychological condition " of early man.
There is absolutely nothing in Sir George's works that is incompatible with Fontenelle's doctrine as to the origination of mythology among primitive and savage men on the contrary. Lang is always charging upon that school a positive rejection of anthropological science.
us
who came
mythology as
evolutionists. Quoting Fontenelle's phrase. who.
. that
:
is
more
or less clearly implied all through them. as the leading English exponent of a system of (implicitly) universal mythology. Casaubons of this world have neglected it.
343.
'
1
:
. Lang on his own part really seems unable to see the wood for
—
the trees. Ritual.
but implicit in that. Lang's readers The whole as a typical " Mr. Mr.
apart from problems of interpretation. Lang certain of his keys or clues are fanciful.
life
of savages is the special
1
Myth.

obscene. in a note (p. and were puzzled to find Mr. or Hellenic myths is not silly. and Max Miiller. p. Lang complains. if it comforts him. Cp. the attack on Huxley's teaching. Heyne. justly enough protests that "the great body of Vedic. gross. but on this we may let Mr. Lang's general tone should thus maintain that one of his chosen specialties consists mainly 3 He is the collection or study of absurd and offensive anecdotes. with his derivation of the my thus " ab ingenii humani imbecillitate et a dictionis etjestate" so much objected to by K. Lang have his way. Part of his grievance against other schools is that they are too ready with explanations." which
statement of the direction in is to be sought. and of the
deepest interest. carrying the principle of evolution further than we could well expect him to do. Man's consciousness of sin. and personal adventures of his deities. As a rule. disgusting. are told to or by the worshipper concerning the origin. what stories. view
:
Let us take his
own
definition of his point
us with a sense of the hunger and thirst by the Hebrew psalmists. but definitely refuses to apply the
evolution principle beyond certain boundaries. about "that strangely neglected chapter. Sir George Cox. Lang in chapter after chapter insisting on this datum as if it were a struggling heresy. that essential chapter. 19) on an early article by Mr. O. his sense of being imperfect in the sight of larger other eyes than ours. Mr. we were the more puzzled. ignored or opposed by all previous mythologists.—
MODERN SYSTEMS
theme. and Religion. We took savage origins as a matter of course.
to
39
In this connection the idea dated back at least a century.
2 3
. ii. because while Sir George Cox. ii.
1 While retaining this passage in the revised (1899) edition of his earlier work. But all this aspect of the Vedic deities is essentially the province of the science of religion rather than of mythology. and falls back on the simple iteration that "
what led Greeks and Phoenicians he again and again flouts attempts at
all this
is
came from savages. Bitual. he has often the air of saying that it is hardly
of
no explanation at which explanation
all. 152. the Higher beliefs of the Lowest savages'* (p.
but merely a
worth troubling about. When he does accept an explanation that goes beyond totemism. Lang. 183).' is a topic of the
affect
'
" It would be difficult hymns. not with what feelings of awe and gratitude the worshipper approaches his gods. 2nd ed. Nay. full of the most absurd and offensive anecdotes. Lang not only shows himself more of an
a priori theist than Sir George. clergyman and theist as he was.
It is
explicitly
in
odd that a writer of Mr. which even now
after righteousness
'
to overstate the ethical nobility of certain Vedic
so passionately felt
'
comes but by accident into the realm of mythological science} That science asks." explanation. these stories are a mere chronique scandaleuse. 1st ed. and revolting ". 129. Teutonic. 191. personal characteristics. but what myths. but
it
crudest fictions " 2
. in his Making of Beligion (1898).
Myth. Mr. led us definitely through mythology into or at least up to the reigning religion.
Instead of seeking
above
all
things to " understand
to commit these follies.

Canon MacCulloch. who. p. avows that "mythology is wrapped up with religion everywhere" (Religion: Its Origin and Forms. which is demonstrably fallacious. Cp. p. such as these are." or that "mythological
sundering of religion from mythology. explaining it by the human
" accident " the ethical elements or bearings
elevation of the
brain structure. as savages. as it happens.—
40
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
However
falls.
it
cannot be too emphatically said that Mr. Tylor and
Mr.
A
partial
not complete contradiction of these propositions
given in Mr. Primeval myth and primeval ethic are all of a piece primitive man's mythology is in terms of his ethic as well as of his 2 science." 2 Save in so far. like civilized people. differ on one issue while concurring on the other. But as we see in all ages a profession of austere religious belief conjoined with unscrupulous or frivolous practice. that is. head I shall under-
take to support. Whatever purification. Lang's disciple. 5). Nor is that all. Lang. modification. Serious and frivolous savages might well frame myths of a different cast.
it
is
especially in the absence of authoritative science.
1
but mere mythography. his logic.
it is
clearly
on him
if
:
on any one that there
It is
Fontenelle
not science to
pro tanto. the rebuke of one's head with the follies of
Phoenicians and Greeks. vary in mental type."
On
this head. Where that is
is
may
if
cause further inventions and modifications. we must credit savages with similar inconsequence.
that
may be. and sophistication of
:
of a
myth takes place in later ages is largely the outcome of the pressure more advanced ethic on the old myth lore.
. it would seem clear that to set aside as
of mythology is to throw away an essential part of the explanation of " what led the Greeks and Phoenicians to commit these follies. where the avowal that " both mythology and a great part of religious belief and worship spring from one common source" is confused by the absurd proposition that "religion and mythology are two separate affairs but so much intermixed and blended that it is impossible to discriminate between tliem. Lang's later theorem
be dealt with hereinafter that the lowest savages are found holding together a high-grade religious theory and a low-grade mythology and that the former is
." and what led them to put a different face on them.
—to
probably the earlier development. is as arbitrary as anything that has been said on the other side of the
discussion. which on the side of
form or bare statement
developed.
otherwise apt to be blindly reiterated. But even on that view. 87. The spirit of Fontenelle's remark carries us beyond the search for the bare explanation of the groups of pagan
1 Mr. 2. his proposition that they come
together only
"by
science" has
nothing to do with the ethical purport or colouring of myths. the 1.
fill
surely doing himself an injustice. who follows him in his theory of the moral first God-ideas of primitive man. despite the formidable authority of Dr. Lang's
accident.
Mythology as defined by him Two assertions on
is
this
not a science at all. his imagination.

1. he writes in
After
all
his
iterations
another chapter concerning Greek myths that
"it
must be remembered
that. with historical religion. but still adhering to his arbitrary division of things. when rational ethic has definitely broken away from the old amalgam.
1
about the origination of myths in savagery."
on the ladder of facts to a knowBroadly speaking. if we cannot call it astonishing.
But
to put aside the
mass
of written theology.MODEEN SYSTEMS
:
41
myths it sets us upon tracing the whole connection of mythology with social and intellectual life. Modifying the uncompromising dictum above quoted. like all
myths.
. is wilfully to impoverish and humble the science. Lang and so many other mythologists do. Lang. ethics and religion are everywhere inseparably blended with myth and in so far as religion has remained bound up with myth and with primitive ethic down to our own day. The one respect in which Mr.
make
a division of labour. on which he has so zealously staked his case in mythology. Ritual. 1. To stop short of that. Lang's books on Mythology and Keligion are consistent is that in each in turn he looks only at one side of the shield a course so arbitrary and so confusing that it can be explained only in terms of some extra-scientific bias.
—
. Myth. In the words of
Ottfried Miiller." writes Mr. the
is
argumentative side of the later historical
and to keep out of sight the vital connections and reactions of myth and doctrine is quite another. they have far
less
concern
1 "Christian conduct and faith. Lang repudiating for religion the fundamental principle of all mental science.
That
is
the work of the
that
it
not that the subjects are
separate. with ethics and philosophy as affected by historical religion. as
apart from narrative bases and symbols. "are no longer affected by the answers" we give to questions about myth origins. and Religion. but their conjunct development into and survival in the latest forms of all. always out of sight or even surmise of the bearings of these matters on the creeds and institutions
one thing
. it is perplexing. as Mr. It is
accidents " in these matters save in the strict logical sense that in
is
certain cases there
an intersection
true that
it is
not the mythologist's business to discuss the developof
ment and variation
hierologist
. At the beginning of the historic period.
of the civilized nations of
our
own
day. and religion. ritual. 1st ed. it is supremely important and supremely interesting to trace not merely the earlier forms of myth. but
is
necessary to
systems.
11
we must
" ascend
ledge of internal being and life. keeping it always concerned with " the follies of Phoenicians and Greeks. to find Mr.
reasoned and written religious doctrine." always among the ancients or the Hottentots. there were no
of causal connections.

and move. 43.
3
book on The Making of Religion. and than with the religio.
of
statement that Mr."
. 280. 199." purpose is all Mr. 309. 289. 305. making no reservation of any department of mental life. just as he repeatedly imputes " sacerdotage" to many phases of the religions of Egypt and India.
in the merest obiter dictum. 175. 290. 208. we are driven to note that very soon after drawing
a line between the science of religion and that of mythology. he here undertakes.'
superstition which is afraid of changing the and which. to what God in the making or in the beginning.
{
' '
—
—
the
luck.. Id. Lang
has not thought out his position and when we compare them with retained as they are in the revised edition of his earlier work
—
his subsequent credit
2
ethic. p." Compare The Making of Religion. To speak of " the beginning " is neither here
—
Myth. Lang's polemic ? What is the meaning of the If we cannot title of his last treatise. that is none of his affair as a mythologist. 4 Myth. In any case. Ritual." but that "no man can watch the idea of 4 If this be true. 185. whether from his own point of view or from ours. 273. But when he has gone a certain distance he asserts not only that "the question of the origin of a belief in Deity does not come within the scope of a strictly historical inquiry. i.—
42
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
with religion in its true guise with the yearning after the divine which is not far from any one of us. and Religion. ii. of Religion. pp. 307)
1
2
Making
3
that his opinions have become more emphatic as to the remote antiquity of both the purer religion and the "puzzling element of myth. and Religion. 281. Ritual. This view again is virtually quashed on p. "The Making of Eeligion"? watch the God-idea in the making. therefore. 206.' after the God in whom we live. as to " beginnings. i. misgivings. 65 .
And we are bound to observe that." 1
myths was that ancient
'
It
would appear from these variations
. putting aside for the moment the oddly haphazard assertion in the last sentence of the passage before us. At the outset he professes to stand on the evolutionist basis now common to the sciences. 186. 309. 211. misapprehensions. In this regard he is doing exactly what he charges on the other mythotaking an a priori point of departure instead of going to the logists comparative history of the facts. 1st ed. neither can we watch religion or myth in the making. 1st ed. 307. pp. keeps up acts of ritual that have lost their significance in their passage from a dark and dateless past. which is a tissue of old barbarous have our being The religion which retained most of fears. the lack of these sequence becomes bewildering. ii. to lay
down
the law as to
what con-
stitutes the "true guise" of religion. 334. 2nd ed. which inclines to primeval savages with a high-grade religion and a "pure" and to explain their mythology as a later excrescence on
when we put all the propositions together. Lang abandons this particular sentiment. and
—
claiming to stand only in the latter's province. 2nd ed. 235. though he explains (p. I do not gather that in the revised edition Mr.

are either God-myths. We not only take myths " as we find them."
to solve such conflicts of theory
is
The one way
to go to the
evidences in anthropology.
. Lang indeed proceeds to admit that " the notions of man about the Deity. and
part of
its
history.
—
—
the
making"?
What
else
do
we
find
stages of the mythology of
any one people?
previously
1
when we compare successive And what had Mr. in Ghosts. Indogermanische My then. man's religious sentiments. 211
(Mythologische Stellung
).
39.
i. the " beginnings " of myth.
p.
and
religious history." Then is it argued that at no stage do we find myth " in
. corresponding in some degree to the
various changes in the general progress of society"?
Such attempts at the separation of growths that are visibly and complementary are necessarily abortive. Lang will here dissent the God-idea must be in similar case and Mr.
that
Lang meant when he
said
"we
are
enabled to
examine mythology as a thing of gradual development and of slow and manifold modifications. it is the merest mutilation of mythology to take the "absurd and offensive anecdotes" of the pagans and the heathens in vacuo. with which Mr. since. as we have seen. One of the most laborious of
. and his mythical narratives.
. must be taken as we find them. 36 E. Meyer. and then claim to have given us a " mythological science " of them. " We are acquainted with no race whose
In other lie far back in the unpenetrated past. and Religion. he never disputes
main periods
objects
that
all alike
belong to " myth-history. and in Gods. for the proposition must hold equally of myth. i. Ritual." but we try to understand how they came to be there and to be so even Mr. Lang goes on to say.
their history
is
directly
for
the
history of
the God-idea.
the later
German mythologists
syncretically decides that "
:
Myth
those of belief in Souls.
And
or indirectly
commonly so called. 1st ed. Then though Mr." insisting that " the conception (Vorstelhmg) of the existence of the human soul precedes the animizing of natural
history passes through three
2 But while thus drawing a dubious and and phenomena." words.
1
myth
literature. they are among the first data
as old myths.
beginning does not
Lang never deals. in terms of the theorem of Darwin and Vignoli.
1883. albeit
confluent
:
fitfully.MODEEN SYSTEMS
43
nor there. as Mr.
i. Lang tries. H.
Even when the God-idea is nominally separated by philosophers from all myth and ritual. are pre-human.
2
Myth. it remains none the less a development from the myth-and-ritual stage and as every one of the historical religions has at every stage connected the idea with primitive ritual and what we recognize as myth." untenable line between the orders of myth-material.
2nd
ed.

animism lies deep in animal instinct. 119. Neither is it possible to show in terms of experimental psychology that a God-idea could come into being only as a fresh superstructure on concepts of soul and ghost rather the naturalistic surmise is that a God-idea grew up with and in terms of the others. like later man. Early man. animizing inanimate things without doing so in the case of rain and wind but then there is no reason to credit them with a ghost-idea so they or a soul-idea. ghost-lore.
start
which
ancestor worship
1
. or the group of emotions so labelled.
. then they had a kind of God-idea at least as early as Animals. noting how the process of tions differentiated from them. and God-lore. 3rd ed. It took relative genius at one stage to create even a myth which to a civilized sense is offensive 2 and absurd. 285. or was a primitive form from which all other forms were derived. indeed. alternately
or conflictingly.
or. adding the second and third one by one to the first. Cp.
as the socio-economic conditions
may tend
. and was only by means of reflection or of priestly instituIf. there is no evidence that he passed through successive stages of soul-lore." Here we come to the factor of which so many theorists are always tending to get rid. i. it
may
be. as against those who for the concept " discriminate " and its variants substitute that of deliberate creation. nothing can hinder that the mass of inherited lore shall be modified from period to period either upwards or downwards. 1896. The earliest beliefs were a jumble of ideas.44
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
first
positively
as regards the mental life of " primeval " man. in all likelihood. seem capable of a ghost-idea or soul-idea. p. proceeded of necessity in his mental life by way of modification and readaptation and the work must have been done in large part by the of his lore few thinking minds for the many. and fatally fixative as is the religious instinct. Primitive Culture. and it was long before the elements of the different kinds of religion were discriminated. either in terms of increasing knowledge or in terms of deepening ignorance. though they certainly seem to have dreams give us no reason for putting the germ of the God-idea very late in man. in terms of a strife of forces and institutions.
. Tylor. have independently come to the conclusion so decisively put by such a competent student as
And
:
. we perforce credit the earliest men with a notion of living force behind the phenomena of sun and rain and wind. albeit much more slowly. 249.
1
Thus
2
Principles of Sociology. Many of us. are destined to be overthrown. and slow as is all aggregate development.
Professor Giddings
:
" I believe that all interpretations of religion
from the assumption that fetichism. animal worship.

" or. it is not the only one. For instance.
naturally the
claim
of
is
commonest motive. Other religions show kindred phenomena.
phenomena
primitive thought in systems which yet seek to glose
.
myths and those of " Pagans. Hebrew and Christian religion is mythological. the Hebrew sacred books crystallize round the most disparate nuclei of older lore and again the Christian innovation is connected with older and lower conceptions of ritual theophagy and yet again. in view of these long-drawn permutations. or that ethics attaches to either
and not to the other. in other words.
. that the myth
of (a) the conservation of all
it
. Yet we shall find one mythologist or anthropologist after another claiming to make such severances and though the desire to accredit religion is
.
scientific
We
can but proceed to judge of the
.MODERN SYSTEMS
we have
the
45
manner of and (6) the fresh grafting of primitive survivals on systems which have been partly shaped by higher forces.
—
is
essentially alien to the religion.
different attempts
on
their merits
and
in the
same way we must
Christian
deal with the chronic attempts of writers with an orthodox bias to
make
out a fundamental difference between
Hebrew and
to
. is to override the evidence. since the made in the same fashion by one or two writers on the side
Naturalism. the Church gradually adds to its stock of myths that of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mother of the God-Man this by force of the same myth-making bias (however sophisticated) as framed the previous dogma of his Virgin-Birth.
deny that
. in the Middle Ages. To say.

Lang as to a mysterious " purity " and philosophical elevation about the ethic and religion which in certain primitive peoples are found in context with an " absurd and offensive " mythology. can say which. 188. element. Mr. that the high " conception came first. as Mr.. which they at once "forget" and retain. or at least psychologically alien to certain others of their mental processes. Lang nevertheless insists that there That is no real connection between his ethics and his mythology. myth is classified as a species of by-product of the primeval mind. Tylor and Mr. is of his own making. is the earlier"* such is the motley 5 doctrine with which Mr. something out of touch with the normal psychology of those who produce it.
Prompt advantage has been taken of his argument and his authority by orthodox exponents of the science— e.
p. Lang has burdened anthropological science. and that animistic degeneration " inevitably 3 and "necessarily" followed. is a fair sample of the Here. The puzzle. and does not inhere in his data. more definitely than ever. Lang presents it. fallacy of the separatist method. 194.
1
Making
2 Id.
46
. etc. though all the while both aspects " are found co-existing. Huxley that there is no connection between the ethics and the religion of the lower savage.
:
4
m. pp. We may grant him every one of these. if either.Chapter
III. pp.
5
of Beligion.
joining the mythical or narrative
and the didactic aspects
of
we
logist
mythoMr.
THE SEPAEATIST FALLACY
§ 1. 281. that degeneration may occur at any stage of human evolution that primitive tribes
find important clues as well as cases in the writings of a
already dealt with. 3 Id. in our total lack of historical information about the beginnings. 199.
16-20.
The theorem
. Canon MacCulloch's primer on Beligion Its Origin and
Forms. p. in almost all races and nobody.
still
LOOKING
for the
grounds of the
common
persistence in disof religion.g. grant him that very primitive tribes may as apart from his glosses have a notion vaguely and loosely analogous to that which civilised men express by the term "Supreme Being".
—
—
.
The Theistic Presupposition. 276. primeval men had primordially a " high " conception of a Supreme 1 2 Being. Denouncing the doctrine of Dr. p.

47
be in certain relations much more unselfish in their normal than highly civilized peoples that they may be innocent of cruel religious practices found in more advanced civilizations that they do not discriminate as theologians do between " spiritual " and 11 material " beings all this without for a moment concurring either in his arbitrary addenda as to the " purity " of primeval ethics or the actuality of Hebrew narratives. Mr. Mythology among the Hebrews.
. Lang's case we have the old fundamentally fallacious presupposition belief that his own theology is the height of rationality as compared with that of polytheists turned afresh to the old account of making out that primeval man was not "left without a witness" as to there being only one God.
. 3) that " it may. while arguing implicitly that savages have no ethics at all. Eng. 5. being applied to the God-ideas of savages. Lang's view is corrective savages certainly have ethics. he admits a " secondary " ethical element. p. First in order and importance comes the fallacy as to the 11 Supreme Being. and with any degree of " absurdity " in myth. the 1 existence of the raw material. He speaks of their " monotheism " in the act of
. Lang assumes that any concept which can be described by the words in question must be "high. W. cited by Roskoff. In Mr. proceeding with a " However that may be. "the heathen (i. 2nd ed." or "deep..
the
South Pacific. i. tr.
—
:
—
1
Rev." or " pure. Lang's philosophic savages never do believe in One God. 1880." Because in civilized thought the phrase is associated with philosophy. which is an effort to find an ethical solution where the former does 3 not even face the problem. p. Mr.
2
3
W." In the words of Lazarus: "Alle Sitten sind sittlich alle Menschen haben Sitten" (Vrspncng der Sitte. fallacious) myth for all who have critically rejected it as an expla4 nation of the cosmos.
1876." 2 There is really nothing necessarily or " profoundly philosophic. of course."
:
." in which the word " supreme " engenders fallacy from the start. and Religion. It is itself an " absurd " (that is. Ritual. albeit not " high " or " deep. Das Beligionsivesen der rohesten Naturvolker.—
THE SEPAEATIST FALLACY
may
life
. 211." high or deep about the matter the bare theory of a Single God is not more but less ethically elevated than the theory of Dualism. p. 15 but.
This is denied by Goldziher. at least in part. In point of fact. p. The former is perfectly compatible with any measure of barbaric crudity in ethics. savage) intellect has no conception of a Supreme Being creating a universe out of nothing Whenever the gods make anything. be argued that the belief in a Creator is itself a myth. is presupposed. who never think out the thesis of "supremacy." This view he does not attempt to meet. 4 Mr. p. Lang notes (Myth. 20. or in the obscure inferences concerning the " supernormal " and the supernatural with which he embroiders the whole. 146)." Further. Gill.e. Myths and Songs from Work last cited. Here Mr.

224. who have two Creator Gods. are actually the " children of Vatea. in the way of degeneration. 1893.
5 6
. in the fashion of the Indian fable that the earth rests on an elephant. but secondary not early. 11. 1st ed. Lang never explains. Either way. A just Supreme Being. Id.
for
their
Gods
is
not only conceivable but
likely. which rests on a That primitive men should often account in that fashion tortoise.
—
—
:
1
E. p. and what not. p. He has begged the question. etc. 7-8. Not once can he point to the existence of a belief that the " Supreme " Being as such is at once a ruling 6 power and above propitiation he does not even bethink him to
But in the child might readily reason so. Harrison. but late. 1-2. Pacific the " High Gods " Tangaroa. though his wife. 188. Eonga. Pacitic.. Ghost-Gods. ii.
Making of Religion. On the other hand.
The fair inference from parents. the savage's High God or Creator is either a God gone out of action or a figure put in to account for the presence of the other Gods. pp. Mr.
2 Gill. Psychological Religion. 5 But how a God believed to rule all things could ever be so shelved by beings regarded as of a lower grade.48
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
1
exhibiting their polytheism. he argues. i. 4 with whom they are so much more practically concerned. Ritual. But he never asks whether they regard propitiation as useless.
the data
is
first
4
Max
Miiller.
—
. Golden Bough.
Myth. is 2 almost undisguisedly the Earth-Mother. Lang's theory appears to be that the Supreme Being in savage theology has been shouldered aside by demons. 2nd Myths and Songs from the South
that Vatea and Papa. citing
Rev. Lang constantly adverts without apparently seeing its 8 bearing the fact that as a rule the savage pays little heed to his 11 Supreme Being" gives the rationale of the whole matter. were originally the primal Gods of a conquered race. though he claims to do so. C. And one fact to which Mr. 8 Work last cited. p. and Religion. would give no such chances to individual egoism as are given by " squarable " lower Gods. 17. who makes her children out of pieces of her side.
as a rule are
Broadly speaking. a good and a bad. 87. Vatea in turn was son of the Great Mother. We find even the belief "that the Great Spirit that made the world is dead long ago " (Frazer. That the disregard of the Creator God arises not merely because he is good. ii. on whom new Gods were super-imposed. a given God may become "supreme" precisely because other Gods are doing the actual work a development which we shall have occasion to discuss later. Mr. Lang relies on the apparent absence of propitiation in regard to certain primitive deities. 222. and who disregard both alike in comparison with their minor created deities. the process of elevation is not primary.
A
thoughtful
mythology of the South and the rest. and seems to suppose he solves the
contradiction by noting that so-called monotheists
practically polytheists. is made clear by the case of the Haidas of North-West America.g." the first man. Mr. 213). the
ed. Papa. On the next page he records a virtual process of propitiation of an " author of all good " among Patagonians.

357. 42. Sir G. as cited. Ellis at first held Nyankupon to be a God borrowed from the whites. the Creator God of the Goddess to act as Mediatress) Shilluks in the Sudan .
i. 1899. 52-53.
2
3
He
is ostensibly the racial 5 Gill. although " Supreme." the Supreme people. Samoa a Hundred Years Ago. pp. pp.
6
*
Below. " sacrifices constitute their only attempts at inter-
they seem to regard him not as a being likely to confer benefits. being mainly supine." Hebieso and Abui. p. 1889. Macdonald. The Lower Niger and its Tribes. The Native Baces of South Africa. at Tahiti and Mangaia. 32-33. The sacrifices formerly rendered to him were human.
E
. 458. 14 Major Glyn Leonard.g. Sir A. B. the Creator God of the Tahitians. 1905. 401. Thomson. as well as 13 Yet again we find a Supreme Nyankupon. ed.
overthrown or superseded. as we shall see. i.
p. 162. 281. and these were stopped by a disgusted chief. the Tangaloa or Tangaroa of the Samoans. p. art. 388.
Partridge. 145.
God
of the Polynesians. 324. the Creator God of the Ainu (who allows the Fire10 Jo-uk. Id.
fact. but afterwards gave up that view. 197-9. 79. pp. 22-23. p. " the Awuna Zeus and Hera ". Supreme Beings " are in a number of cases propitiated by savages the Imra of the pre-Moslem e.
.. See Gill. is simply that the Gods in question. 13 Sir A.
his primitive savages the conception of inexorable He has simply given to the phrase " Supreme
—
" all its possible connotations. 1908. S.THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
prove that
49
among
impartiality exists.
1
On
the other hand. The Kdfirs of the Hindu-Kush. pp. 3 2 Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush. 24-30. Myths and Songs. 1885. p. 12 H. Magic and Beligion. but the governing God of the 14 In the case of Deng-Dit. the creed is that only
after
man had
learnt to sacrifice cattle
become
fruitful. pp. B.-Col.
1831. 19." The explanation of all these cases. p. their priests having never been
course with God. by Lieut. Robertson. The Tshi-SpeaUng Peoples of the Gold Coast. Jos.
9
10
11 The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan: A Compendium prepared by Officers of the Sudan Government. the Ngai of the Masai. and most of the Leeward Islands. and so burked the real problem. pp. France. T. 184. October. i. Cross Biver Natives. Oceania: Linguistic arid Anthropological. the Kaang of the Bushmen. 12 and the Gold Coast Gods Bobowissi and Tando.
And
In
and sheep to him did women while the present generation are niggard of
their gifts to him. receives little propitiation in general. 4 Turner. 62. ed. Batchelor. 444-5. in the
known
ethic
Stow and Theal.
Ellis. This Supreme Deity. ed." in Jour. 133. ed 1870.
322. 1884. 113. 1887. of the African Soc. 1906. Through Masai Land. 1901. as cited. See T. Kongo." happen to be still more or less actively regent. " who is not
Being
"
1
4
. 14. D." God habitually propitiated in the case of Yor Obulo. on "The Worship of the Thunder-God Among the Awuna. 7 6 the Ndengei of the Fijians the Rupi and Nisrah of the Nigerians 8 Taaroa (=Takaroaor Tangaroa).
.
PoUjnesian Besearches. Fiji and the Fijians.
only chief of the deities of the Andoni. pp. however. 128. Count Gleichen. Williams.
But Ndengei. "the Rain-Giver. is in some islands (where Kongo is primate) little regarded. 381. his twin (and more popular) 5 brother. 15. See Lang. 1905.
7
8
W. and Rev. 97. 18." and Creator-God of the Dinkas of the Sudan. 11. but as a destructive power to be propitiated 15 if possible. 15 The Anglo-Egyptian Stidan. 1905. "Lord of the Sky. 1892. 195. 296. The Ainu of Japan. p. 166. pp. the Supreme Deity of the natives of the Obubura district in Southern 9 Nigeria. Ellis. p.

his name is one of the names of the High God Mula 3 Djadi.
we find a complete negation of the idea of imparThe African Wakuafi account for their cattle-lifting pro-
clivities
by the calm assertion that Engai. pp. Lang's Magic and Beligion.
6. Asiasi. by the
cattle to
.
s
6 8 9
5.
Id. Lang's Mosaic Hebrews. it is told that all things are dependent upon him. and in this view he is the giver of all good. pp. preface.
And
over
all
the ethical conception
is
that of simple fear
and safeguard-seeking. See the first chapter of Mr.
i. p. p. being a kind of compound or essence of a group of three. 2. At the same time. there is a benevolent 5 Earth-God.
all such however. 61-62. Die Beligion der Batak.
priest. gave all them So in South America the fierce Mbayas declare they received from the Caracara a divine command to make war on all 1 other tribes." the fourth. with traces of former human sacrifices. or five Over-Gods. pp.
. yet he is regularly 4 propitiated by sacrifices. 2nd ed.. id. whom he so strangely represents as returning to an ancient purity of morals. Magic and Religion. And the God of the Mbayas may have been just as " high. and Beligion.
1
Some
of us. Lang's very assiduous investigation as to any of the savage beliefs on which he rests his case.
Southey. For some. that is Heaven.
4
392. and are always invoked with the Gods.
7
Idm pp. 25. 28.
Myth. who in prayers is always invoked before the High Gods. and gets sacrifices only by way 2 of something added to those of the three other High Gods. They have three. balancing their differences. and he is reckoned "a just judge". 7
The
is
right line of inference
to follow
no need
the antiquity of
from the data being thus saved. 3.
ia.
2
8
Warneck. and generally before them. pp. 6-7. Tylor appears to doubt the aboriginally of
conceptions." "Heaven" would seem to be a sufficiently "high" God.50
of
THE PKOGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
many
savages
"
tiality. Ritual. 27. however. or four. as it were a Holy Spirit. who are the powers most constantly and directly recognized by the mass of the people and by the sorcerers. killing the men and adopting the women and children. again. He is seldom prayed to. But it is the priests who deal with the Earth -God and the High Gods and all the while every head of a family propitiates the Ancestor-Gods. there Mr. Id. were
it
not that Dr. and he is of course duly propitiated. see no conclusive ground for
Tylor. and here are the Wakuafi attaching to him just such an ethic as that of Mr." Among the Bataks of Sumatra the rationale of the process of propitiation becomes fairly clear. Of the High God Batara Guru. Primitive Culture.
1901. 26. 39. citing Krapf and 1909. 32. 20.
His anxiety to make out that the First God Ahone was believed in by the redskins before Columbus 8 would seem entirely needless.

For all masses of men it certainly did . 174. But it was made still earlier by Creuzer. 2nd ed. Myth.
" I find that in ancient times.
So with other aspects
The notion
of a
Good
1 Wesley's abridgment of the Life of the Rev. ii. 290. p." seems to have inquired without preconceptions. The Childhood of Man. and Leo Frobenius. the author's Short History of Freethought. Lang notes. pp. Brinton. some who presided over the
Others imagined the sun to be the only deity.
: .
of their theism. making them the immediate authors of good to certain persons. Id. ii.
51
full
value
—over
We
and
are ready to
make Mr. perhaps an adaptation of Christian Trinitarianism to the needs of Mr. they seemed to suppose there were three deities. Lang
earlier
a donation. so frequently mentioned by the more learned ancient heathens. 1800. 1895).. and themselves. front. 182. Lang himself constantly reminds us that the savage does not distinguish as theologians do between "spiritual" and "material" beings. 2 This should remind us to construe strictly Hume's substantially sound thesis that polytheism preceded monotheism.
that
all
things were
made by him
. The Food of Certain American Indians (Worcester. David Brainerd. . somewhat like the anima mundi. Cp. and may pass as a good witness. Social and material degeneration did indeed take place among the redskins 3 after the advent of the white man but the theory of Three Gods is no more degenerate than the theory of A God. which amounts to saying that they are only at the very first stage of the theistic hypothesis.
objections to
its
adequacy. English. Negroes. Ritual.
. It was a primitively scientific attempt to explain a newly observed phenomenon which the older views did not seem to account for and the process shows very well how simply and childishly the older theories had been framed. and three only. and have not realized the most elementary
Brainerd. at
above
the
evidence he cites
—
of
such
of the
testimony as that of the missionary Brainerd. whether apart from others or existing alone. As Mr. 4th ed. ch.
coming of the white people. as he now notes. Lucien Carr. In reality there has been no such thing.. Eng. But after the
four corners of the earth. 48-50. diffusing itself to various animals. Here then we have among savages (l) worship of the Sun by some as 2 Sole God. that there has been degeneration in the latter case from a higher to a lower form of faith.—
THE SEPAKATIST FALLACY
the doubt. the point was made long ago by Dr. trans."
—
though an "enthusiast. and even to inanimate things.. 179. and others at the same time having a confused notion of a certain body or fountain of deity. redskins in the second quarter of last century
who saw much
:
[Indians] supposed there were four invisible powers. before the coming of the white people. (2) the conception of a Good Supreme Being by Polytheists and (3) finally general resort to a belief in Three Gods. Lang's theory implies the case as seen by the redskin's science.
.
. 54. but at an early period a monotheist or an atheist might exist among polytheists. Mr. and Religion. and pref 4 Making of Religion. Mass. 3 Cp. 1909. because they saw people of three different kinds of complexion 1 viz. p.

"
2
seventeenth century. xvi. pp. any more than among Christians. 11. therefore hath given the charge thereof to Satan. and sacrifices of Cocks. some supreme Gods who are
. Alexander Ross. But there is no reason to suppose any such general rigour of logic among savages. 85. ed.
13. but "they try rather 4 with sacrifices because he treats them badly. ed. In their offerings it was a maxim to defraud the God
1
:
more potent. p. The Lower Niger and its Tribes.52
THE PBOGKESS OF MYTHOLOGY
Power
other
— as distinct from that a mere First God to account the Gods — would be a simple generalization from the observed
of
for
T
cases of propitiousness in Nature.
men
of the
Gaboon region
is
because he
are reported to honour the evil spirit Mbuiri the ruler of this world. 423. p.
But where." 6 they naturally offer him no service. but a more irritable The ancient Slavs put the matter more decorously when they " confessed that there is a God in Heaven. as we have seen. 1851. 33. Krasinski. though they neglected his worship. the Gnostic passages in John. Cited by H. So the negroes
believed really to rule are regularly propitiated. as in regard the Creator-God " as having no connection with them whatsoever. p. 461
3
4
Bohn citing Pocock's Specimen.
. As Gibbon noted of the Supreme God of the ancient Arabs " The most rational of the Arabs acknowledged his power." Dupuis. ed. Abrigk de I'Origine de tous
les cidtes. 1822." The Dutch traveller Dapper explained concerning the people of Benin in the
for the profit of the idol. The question is not one of the character or the hierarchical status of the God.
citing Helmold's
5
6
'
Chronicon Slavorum. Great Benin. 60. who was good. Pansebeia. with regard at least to the administration of human affairs."
travellers
more
of
uncompromisingly. 4th ed. but of his supposed activity. 49. 7 and needs to be appeased. not a
patron. earlier
reported
of
the
people
Malabar that "they hold that God made the world. 31 xiv. If it w ere the case that the Good Power alone was held not to need propitiation. but because the trouble of governing thereof is so great." in contrast to their "Bad Captain below.
Nigeria. but having care only of heavenly things.
. 30. Ling Roth. Sketch of the Religious History of the Slavonic Nations. p. Cp. 2 Ch. and was neither a higher nor a lower conception than that of a Bad Power or a variety of dangerous
powers who did the more abundant harm. commanding all the 3 others. 1906. xii. v. 50. Major Glyn Leonard. 1672. 108. that they did not think
pitiate the
it
necessary to proto satisfy
Still
the devil
High God." Evidently it is the supposed activity of the God that governs the procedure for. i.
. that would be a specially logical deduction from the datum that his only function was doing good.
1 This view was found long ago among the Hottentots. 109. whom they worship with flowers on their 5 Altars. 1903. as regarded their "Good Captain above.
p.

38. " no service. who did not interfere with them .
punishes
serve
"
him no
longer. Paul Wurm.
154." " They gave the good spirit.
. 41."
7
In this view he is corroborated by travellers without number. 392." king is the visible God." So the Waganda of the Victoria-Nyanza region say
of a
nearly universal.THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
while the good
53
God Ndschamti is in comparison impotent. p.
1855. Handbuch der Belicjions-geschichte. G. 39. or the 4 First Father. ii. thinking him too pure to need it . is " a mischievous
and ever-active deity
").
that " their highest
5
place and given the rule of the world and of
Spirits." says another writer of pagan primitives.
Stotf. 1899.
. or the Old One.
2
"
(incarnate in a
"a
black bird of nocturnal habits
of Niane. 43." says Burton concerning religion in Dahome. ib. " regarded as a benevolent and indolent being" (and incarnate in the albatross). 16te Anfl. The Caroline Islands. Dalton.
Id. Yalafath.
8 9
A
Mission to Gelele. the law of the recession of the "high" God is In South Africa. and every province has Accordingly the orthodox German compiler Wurm laments that they while the African peoples in general "know" the One God. 136. " the Supreme is judged too elevated to care for the low estate of man.
God
of death
and
disease.. 2te Aufl.* and even so the Yaps of the Caroline Islands have a Creator-God. Cp. for he seems
Shining One") of not with the " Nyambe " of many of the Bantu-speaking tribes a spirit who may be regarded 3 either as "God" or " daimon. 1908. and can In the same way the people of Madagascar worshipped only the evil God Niane.
i. H. p. 1864. and rules all things its special deities. as
it
The character
happens. simply But whatever the variations
the Ewe-speaking peoples in Togo. p. but make themselves
familiar with spirits or inferior deities to
whom
they attribute the
1
Buchner. 6
Id.
5 jo. disregarding the good God Zamhor. " Conscious of a Creator. while Luk.
who
the but rewards good. but Father. " the One God seems to have been pushed into the background by hero-worships ". the
be ignored. Kraft und
Id." 9 and the same writer decides concerning the Caribs that. and consequently is neither feared nor loved. and by many tribes " is no more called Heaven. p. they
feel so
incapable of appreciating his existence that
to obtain a nearer
they exhibit
no desire
knowledge
of
Him. ib. Hist. 384."
God Katonda has gone back into his dwellingmen to the Lubari or So among the Malagasy there is a tradition of a good God
evil. pp. W. of British Guiana.
is
equivocal.
if
to be nearly identical with "
Onyame " (=" the
—
God's aspect.
7
2
3
4
F. Being incomprehensible. Christian." like Zeus and Jove." but seems primarily to have been " Heaven.

and besides. ii. p. animals.
their prayers to him. 368." Herein the Caribs agree with Stevenson's South. The
any
religion
verdict of orthodox Christianity
pronounced can be found among the Wahuma. The natives explain this in fact ignored rather than worshipped. ii.
1856. citing
Young. Johnston's George Grenfell and the Congo. 70-1. p. and they hold that after having made them he takes 6 no further interest in the affair.
. contending for the existence of a belief Supreme Being among the North American Indians before contact with the whites. It pains to show that such belief
in a
3
is
evidently necessary to be at
some
is religion. They believe most thoroughly in the existence of an evil influence in the form of a man who exists in
of faith is
on such forms
:
by a distinguished modern
traveller
No
traces of
uninhabited places. Anthropologic der Naturvolker. as
1
Id. p.
87. if true. Mhnoires.
i. he thinks much less about us than does our king.
Our German hierologist." And in our own day a keen inquirer who lived among the Bantus concludes that " they regard their God as the creator of mankind.
2 3
4 5
The Beach of Falesd in Island Nights Entertainments.
To the same
Waitz. iii. is not decisive: the "good" power would not necessarily be denied the same service.
Notes on Central America. 1890. But this. 442. But the same does not hold good with the devil. Sir H. Travels in West Africa. by saying that he is too distant to trouble about man and his
infinitely good. for without these
Seldom do they address
gives
he
for
them
4
all
that
"
is
good."
The same simple theology
found at Benin over a
century ago. accepts the verdict of Waitz that " the Great Spirit stands at the summit of the religion of the Indians. and we give him victuals to appease him. 1908. Stanley. p.
1893. Cp. who
vividly remarks
:
" All-e
2
same God and
Tiapolo. Great Benin. effect Beauvais. and prayer rarely. who notes that the evil power was worshipped with human sacrifices. he
cares
little
or nothing as to its course. but not at its centre.
p. 6 Mary Kingsley.
Tiapolo he small chief
work very hard"
— evidently
—he
like too
a transcript
"
God he big chief much makefrom nature. Cp. ii. 1903. 178. 51. 1897." etc. 97. and the earth. cited by H. plants. or for the troubles of men.Sea heroine Uma.
To the same
effect Squier. Landolphe. 1823.
got too
see
much
work. 210. for as all troubles come from him we pray to him and worship 5 him.
God
is
infinitely greater [than the king]
:
and also
he never does us any harm there is therefore no need to worship him. 189. Ling Roth. In Darkest Africa. " though Mawu is considered the most powerful of all the Gods. High raised above the world that he created. 635-6. whether good or evil. there also cited. He is sacrifice is never directly offered to him. and not often do they thank
is
him
his gifts.—
54
THE PKOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
1
immediate occurrences of daily life. again." Among the Ewe-speaking peoples of the Slave Coast.

knowing even the thoughts of men. the government of the world is.THE SEPAEATIST FALLACY
affairs
. replied that his ancestors and his people concerned themselves about the " They never troubled themselves about what went on earth alone. Account of the Abipones. " affectionately salute the evil spirit. whom they call grandfather.
55
and they believe that he remains
in a beatific condition of
of bliss according to the
perpetual repose and drowsiness. the missionary Dobrizhoffer found no word for God. Beligion of Babylonia
and Assyria." one of excess of reverence is to anticipate the a priori The Sky-God of the Odjis is simply in the fallacy of Mr. the
acme
notion of the indolent negro. Ellis. 7 Like a constitutional monarch." to w hom they
5
" but believe in a certain
pray. 57. he reigns but does not govern. Eng. "Thus the Odjis or Ashantis call the Supreme Being by the same name as the sky but they mean by it a personal God. as does Max Muller. on the other hand. who is finally dropped out of practical religion. 153-6. deputed by him to inferior spirits. who. the theoretic head of the Babylonian pantheon. omniscient. 1878. 3 in the Heavens. called Pillan. Hibbert Lectures on the Beligions of India. and is the But though he is omnipresent and giver (?) of all good things. p. ii.
He
turns out to be
the
God
of thunder.
4
They did not worship him. 59."
To call does not condescend to govern the world. p." is to offer an irrelevant solution.
Jastrow. the God of the heavenly expanse. pp. that the withholding of worship from a Supreme Being " may arise from an excess of reverence quite The as much as from negligence.
. citing Riis
and Waitz.
1898. though philosophic religion continued to make much of him." They did not inquire as to the nature of this personage. 64. The historic process takes a quite diplomatic form
this attitude
1
"
He
2
3
6
7
Sir A. Max Muller. 33. and who was creator and governor of the stars. and among them it is the malevolent spirits only who require worship and sacrifice from
. very illustration offered goes to show that neither reverence nor "negligence" comes into play. 5 Id. as they believe. created all things. Lang. when asked what he thought about the firmament. 107-8." The same people."
1
Among the Abipones of Uruguay. pp. The Eiue-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast. but when questioned admitted that he
must be
of their race.
r
Similarly the
savages of Chili
aerial spirit
know no name of God. 89. 90.
man. same case with Anu. 1890. pp. 4 Id. Id.
To suggest. B. and pitying them in their distress. and he had to give them the Spanish word 2 Dios to express the idea of a Creator of all things. An intelligent native. 86-90. 1821. tr. p. as they say.

whom they call Motogon.
'
West
who
" believe in
—
'
:
1
2
3
represents Asiasi as " not a separate person but his name is a combination of the other lour" of the five chief Gods.
28. Such prayers as he receives are formal requests to
." According to a recent authority. And Warneck corroborates (p. there has been direct by Vakeels or proxies. the three Gods of the Indian Trimurti being assimilated as sons of 2 By this Mula Djadi. Nor is Cienga. 4.
Since completing the work of creation they suppose
have
remained perfectly quiescent. Moreover.
excuse the small attention paid to
him
3
!
A
similar evolution has taken place.
56
THE PROGBESS OF MYTHOLOGY
the Bataks of Sumatra. Coleman. including Mula Djadi and Batara Guru. For this some Bataks account." is too far off to help them. 4 propitiated by any service" the Australian deficit of the wherewithal for cult and sacrifice being here. is confronted by Cienga. they no longer pay him any worship. as it happens. 364. 18 Warneck. and Batara Guru taking the first place. and wise man of their own country and complexion Motogon. excess of reverence " will hardly be suggested as In any case. he is seldom prayed to. 28)
. Hibbert Lectures on the Religions of India. although the natives believe that he afflicts them with calamities. powerful. Batara Guru. pp.
p. having wholly committed the government to his three sons. by one account. yet again. Supreme Being of the Bataks was Grandfather Mula Djadi and the present deity of that status. the original political modification. " believe in the
among
existence of one
Supreme Being. he is too far away. by the impiety of men.
. as Motogon has long since been dead and decrepit. Evidently the doctrine concerning Asiasi is multiform and Coleman's account may be quite accurate for some sect or group.
Id. 25." " Our Maker." and the Guiana Indians say that the " Dweller on the Height. creator of heaven and earth. Num. the author of good. Yet he too may well have been for some tribes once the Supreme God. who. and prefer to propitiate
aborigines of
Australia. 1878. When the Samoyede says of regards the attitude to Motogon.
among
certain
an Omnipotent Being. but 1 Here. being named " Grandfather " equally with Mula Djadi. p. perhaps. p. Die Religion der Batak. the explanation. in the Jewish fashion. In any case. was imposed from without by Hindu influence in the thirteenth or fourteenth century." whom the natives fear exceedingly. the author of evil. and whom they imagine as a very tall..
. " Debata [God] Asiasi " is only a Saviour or God of Pity account but he holds the balances among the three. 4 Max Muller. and receives an occasional sacrifice only in connection with the worship of the Three Gods. who [in turn] do not govern in person. despite his protective function.
.
Warneck again
(p. the Sky-God " I cannot approach Num.
whom
they
name Debati Hasi
him
to
Asi. Mythology of the Hindus. 5) as to the small interest latterly taken by the Gods in human affairs. 17 and ref. 1909. it is agreed. 27.

is superior only where his tribal state is relatively communistic. pp. the Haidas are unconcerned about their bad and their good Creator-Gods alike. to
.198.
Among
Cannibals. and he escapes the force of
admission only by denying that the mythology is really connected" with the religion a paralogism which might as well be applied to the case of the Greeks and Semites. The savage's ethic.
That becomes more and more evidently a
3 chimera.
nearer Gods of
explanation
who are mixed." They simply think of him as " above. Lang's own admission. The Lower Niger and Crawley. 1905. 20G. they are not moved by reverence at all.
'
Strange
tribes look
on each other as wild beasts.
note. having no conception of goodness save such as they find in each other. is relatively beneficent simply because he has been relieved of if he ever had active administration. p. Cp. 17-18. and Religion. Lang in his comments on the absence of sacrifice among ill-fed races.
altruistic as regards other tribes. 1906.
6
Myth. while they fear and propitiate the
." ancient. as ethic.
ii.
its Tribes. and which goes on repeating itself in the religious evolution of the more advanced races. pp. They do not in reality even conceive the far-off God as " supreme. Those very Supreme Beings.
17ti. pp. 148."
6
"
The stranger who dares
trespass on the land of another tribe
and
1
slain
and eaten. Religion:
Its Origin
and Forms. i.
—
—
tion as to his character. pp. are
savages
5 concurrent with a " low" mythology.
. A Short History of Freethouglit.
establish Mr. as we have seen. The Tree of Life.THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
1
57
the spirits they fear. etc. The speculative process is visibly from hand to mouth and the remoter God.
pp. Here again the supposed activity of the Power in question. and inactive. 3 As I have pointed out elsewhere. 101. not at all because of a primeval loftiness of concepSun and
terms
Sea. Major Glyn Leonard.
ed. especially of tame animals— a factor ignored by Mr. even if Creator of Evil. 33. and only so far forth as his own tribe for he is never
this
1
—
. Lang's theory. in short.
Cp. 289. sacrifice. which is a form of prayer. 197. 19. we are evidently confronted by a normal psycho2 logical process. 4 Lang. and the assertion that the Supreme Being of the lowest
" on a higher plane by far than the Gods of Greeks and is 4 Semites in their earliest known characters" is absolutely astray. yet. by Mr."
is pursued like a wild beast These statements are not to be taken as of
Instances given by
Canon MacCulloch. To propitiate an Evil Power of any sort again would seem to be a most natural course and we know how simple Christians in all ages have had a sneaking tendency to "speak the Devil fair". Ritual. 94.". 179-180. Making of Religion. 2nd. is conditioned primarily by scarcity or abundance of food.
1889. which is perfectly intelligible.
1
The
[Australian] tribes are each other's mortal foes. 471
2
Id. 423.
Carl Lumholtz. As regards the general removal of the good God from the sphere of action. 347-8.
is
in
of the
.

Finally. See below. 283) that " the natives are very reluctant to give any information in regard to their religious beliefs. is eaten as the chiefest delicacy they know no greater luxury than the flesh of a black man. whether the Australians have degenerated
or not.
A
fallen
man." This last negative testimony may be true of one tribe but Lumholtz actually tells in another chapter (pp. however. They look on them as secrets not to be divulged to persons not of their own race. for
fairly general rule. p. Boyma. omniscient Being.
58
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
some tribes make alliances. 283) accepts Manning's account that some believe in a "supreme. they seem to fear an evil being who seeks to haunt them. "they have no conception whatever. as to the ethic A. benevolent. He having argued that the Australians cannot have got the idea of a Chief-God from a tribe-chief. 101. woman. that
true solution. seated far away in the north-east on an immense throne in a great lake. who lived much among the
2
:
universal truth. since they have no chiefs. when they have no pottery. 5 On the general question of the scarcity of chieftainship among primitives see the article on " Authority in Uncivilised Society. Lang as to the elevation of ethic which must go with the conception of a Supreme
Being. he then triumphantly declares. Spencer and Gillen. Native Tribes. Lang's apriorism. "Of a supreme good being. The degeneration argument." though he denies that the natives among whom he lived had any such belief. Lang yet again to fallacious purpose. p. though. 1894.
It really does not matter. one Head-man being " potent through the whole Dieyri tribe
2 P. writes thus
foe. Whereupon Mr. pp.. the actual and open facts are sufficient to rebut the whole doctrine of Mr. 63. or child. 240. but they state a The same witness. 1908. for the confutation of
Mr. he admits (p. inasmuch as no remains of pottery can anywhere be found to show that the Australians were ever higher than at present. but of whom their
be
it
notions are very vague.. but not as to their creed. F.
4
In another connection. must be the resort of despair" on the part of his opponents." adds Lumholtz. and though 3 they have no idols and no form of divine worship. 20-21). the point as to degeneration is raised by Mr. Messrs." Thus he is a valid witness
1
Id. Calvert (The Aborigines of Western Australia. 38). whatever may be the secret or way of life. Cp. nor do they believe in any existence after death. and (p. it is answered that they may once have had them. Howitt to count for a good deal.
."
private religious ideas behind this
Now. 4 Cp. This is all pure
misconception. in The Sociological Review.
is
possibly the
He
himself concedes in a postscript that Australian
Head-Men of tribes are shown by Mr." by Barbara Freire Marreco. There are superstitious notions connected with cannibalism.
1
aborigines.
"The
Australians are cannibals.
8
. who doubts the existence of any belief in a "beneficent God or righteous Creator" (p. Oct. Spencer and Gillen are emphatic in denying a belief in a Supreme Being to the tribes they have so closely studied. Lang who at other
—
times affirms a wholesale degeneration in matters of religion
that there
is
—
replies
no proof of degeneration here. p. as regards the question of chiefs. 279. 32.
as to their conduct. their present stage being one of social or physiological degeneration. 282) that the natives do believe in spirit life after death.

Appendix D.
3 5
6
Id. p.
principle
is
.
iii.—
THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
59
over three hundred miles of country". Taplin. does not require the concrete fact of chieftainship
to suggest
it.
. 2 Rev. p. G. 34. as being on the one hand necessary to explain the facts of the life of the aborigines as he saw and studied them. Eyre.
4
Lumholtz. and his advice is sought on all occasions of difficulty and perplexity.
5
while Sturt speaks repeatedly of " chiefs "
seem to be
elders." It matters not that this tendency is slight the hereditary
:
no necessary part of the concept of chieftainship. 1873)." Mr. 2nd ed. as cited. 177. is not bettered either way.
usually an old
man and
a young one. then. That the native Australians have however undergone degeneration is a proposition incidentally worth clearing up. or of
who we have seen. the idea of a a Good God who does all the
favourable things. Lang's case.
who do
and
"
are sometimes even
two
chiefs in
one
tribe. Eyre. Mr. as
cited. There is further testimony that in some parts of Australia " there
the electing
. Journals of Expeditions into Central Australia." 2
This elected chief presides over the " tendi " or judgment-council
of the elders of the clan. and on the other hand as vindicating the truth of the story of the " fall " in 6 Of the blackfellow in general he wrote Genesis. admits that " in
all
there are always
"acknowledged" in any some men
who
First
take the lead
". among the tribes of South Australia. The Rupulle is the negotiator and spokesman for the tribe in all disagreements with other tribes.
E."
Of the race as a
1 Making of Beligion. in the interests of all sides of anthropological science. Taplin. 32
An
Account
of
the Tribes of South Australian
(first ed.
method which he has been taught. whose title is Rupulle (which means landowner). the elective. Adelaide. pp. temper.
" Each of the tribes of the Narrinyeri has its chief."
4
Even the
earlier writer.
he is generally 3 chosen for his ready speech. J. who is the leader in war. considered as a basis for a God-idea and there is indefeasible record of a nobler form of Headmanship. Lang had overlooked the evidence when he framed his thesis. 1 while "there are traces of a tendency to keep the office (if it may be called one) in the same kinship. p.
And
after
all. and whose person is carefully guarded in battle by the warriors of the clan. The Narrinyeri. G. and capacity for authority. Rev. The Narrinyeri: Aborigines. 1878. 1840-41. 119-121.
as
God who made
the others.
:
" It seems impossible for or to improve on the
him
to originate a fresh
way
of doing anything. So far is it from being a doctrine of " despair " on the part of perplexed Naturalists that it was confidently and independently put forward a generation ago by a thoughtful missionary.
315. The chieftainship is not hereditary but elective.
who
misleadingly
asserted that no chiefs are
known
to be
Australian tribe.

p.000 yet they seem to the student to be rather the remnants of a noble language than a tongue We find the dual number throughout. gradually driven further southwards 2 by invading Papuans. p. 333.
tribal
and on the other hand in their relatively 6 It is not a matter of and other law. Tbe case of tbe Fuegians. 4 Pescbel. 323. where he admits probable retrogression. The latter writers. Elsewhere (Id. however. 1876.
scientific resources. We have in process of development." etc. Mr. Cp. p. 115) he admits that the presence of Chiefs depends on accumulation of property and their absence or unpopularity is noted among Fuegians and Eskimos.
case rests on the fact that the Australians are not
The
conceivably
probably by
autochthonous. Nortliem Tribes of Central Australia. as has been con-
were Dravidians. six cases in each declension of nouns. but must be held to have anciently immigrated.
. W. 12). 325. 1899. 1904. tr. p. 8 Pescbel. Prichard. for Logan's theory. ii. But inasmuch as races not yet " high " are seen progressing in the environment which the Australians left the Papuans being their superiors. Christian. 324. to some extent their 3 educators it follows that whether or not they were of the same stock as the Papuans they were in more progressive conditions before than after entering Australia.
. on the other hand." and "a man's sons inherit their father's property" (Taplin. it is rejected by Pescbel. and Religion. in recent times." F. The Caroline Islands. 275. Lang's own final admissions. Eaces degenerate not through an inward bias that way. of Mankind. after having lived in much better conditions. the number of its inflections. is closely similar to that of the Australians.
could there prosper. Races of Mankind. 346-7. Hist. but through their conditions. p.
than the Polynesian elaborate system of
dialects. And that is the gist of the whole matter. 1857. Ritual. If. 75-76. Although the number of and the precision with which it can be used. Spencer and Gillen. way of New Guinea and Cape York. do not admit degeneration. As put later by Bleek. It is further noteworthy that among some of the Australian aborigines "a man's children belong to his tribe. Now. whereas the more primitive matriarchal method is "tolerably common among the Oceanic races in general. And there is a measure of proof. on the one hand in their language. Researches into the Rhys. and not to their mother's. 2)cissim. 325. 15-20. p. must be held to have partly degenerated. words is comparatively small probably not more than 4. pp. that "they possess a language which is remarkable for the complexity of its structure. pp. they were presumably " low " to start with."
4
Only a race bringing
to
it
a high secondary or tertiary civilization.
—
—
But the
thesis has been just as independently
framed and urged by
other writers with no religious or anthropological axe to grind. having for ages lived in conditions exceptionally unfavourable to progress. and actually. As to tbe relative richness of the Australian language. p. c Cp. "nowhere can the retarded development of mankind be more readily accounted for by the
jectured. Eng. then. neither of whose civilizations can be autochthonous. they
—
—
unfavourable configuration
of
the
country than in
Australia. Myth. and Spencer and Gillen. see Pescbel. which is much more various and complex in its grammatical forms
with domestic animals and
The mass
of the Australians. v.
1 Pescbel. 5 Cp. 2 See Nott and Gliddon's Indigenous Races of the Earth. 74. 1847. ii.60
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
whole he wrote.

Chieng.
5
2
Id. very little religion. ii. 52-4.
ja.'" their Supreme Being. The Kdfirs of the Hindu-Kush. 830. Tangaroa. 1884.
witness avows that they called him Twpa. ed. Sir G.
3 J.
2
of primitive
of
theism is not in the least a philosophically higher order concept than that of the more plainly anthropomorphic God. they see "
1
By another account whose name simply means sky. 109. The Ja-luo. 1870. Williams. nothing
" as
clearer than the savagery of the
conceived by savages. Nilotic negroes of ness " is no bar to the conception. Concerning the Guaranis. 1885. though.
is
Ndengei is but a savage an elderly savage of a more amiable type and the same may be said of Imra. that which cannot be seen the dead Soychuhet. warlike. Dr.
. p. Natur. ed. pp. 4-7. pp. is the same name as the sun. By one account they believe in a vague power
sky. though that has a separate name and when we learn that among the Wamasai God and rain 6 are synonymous we are confirmed in the inference that the Heaven"
' ' ." have Masai. stands also for rain. They say that God created both good and evil demons. they can only associate the overruling Power with the
Supreme
conception. 1880. 1899. to wit. Through Masai Land. 1902. 11.und Kulturleben der Zulus. " a word composed of two
1
Sir H. ii. men that dwell with God beyond the world. 233. an agricultural. p. have specific testimony as to the "purely materialistic idea of an " interchangeable with Adam which All. " believe in a Supreme God whom they call 4 The Masai name This. maker of men and of the
world. Account of the Abwones. Ngai." the same
. however.
7
8
—
—
content when the culture-stage is similar. pp. 43.
631. 444-5. 90.' Uganda. S. the 9 And we Supreme God of the Aryan Kafirs of the Hindu Kush. Fiji and the Fijians. Turner. and cattle-stealing people. who " knew the Supreme Deity. " The Patagonians call hence they call God Soychu.
Id.
6 7
8 9
10
11
Burton. when questioned. 211-212.THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
losing
61
struggle with
pottery but of
losing
ground in
is
the total
Nature. p. ii." 5 for " sky. Samoa a Hundred Years Ago. M.
4
The Uganda Protectorate. 791. the High-God of the Samoans." again. the rain. p. Wiesbaden. T. Johnston. 1860. wherever we can analyze their We have seen this on the ethical side as regards the Wakuafi and the Mbayas. The Lake Begions of Central Africa. in everything remarkable.
In the same region the and the thunderstorm. Dobrizhoffer. pp.Father of men and things 10 is all that underlies the Zulu God-name of Kulunkulu. 830." 3 But " vagueand yet locate him upon the mountain Kilimanjaro.
. Robertson. Thomson. Kranz.
of the sky. 381-8. Seeking for the philosophic basis we find that in Uganda the Bahima "have a name for God. The most abstract-sounding names are similarly limited in real
in action simply
. 342.
On
"
the other hand.

" see ii.'
simply the ordinary savage or barbarian God put in the first place." With what noticeable exactitude does this develop Spinoza's hint as to the bases of the God-idea in an
'
:
his
own
race
:
ignorant of
understand any phenomenon. The Psalmist calls the miracles in Egypt the works of God. 445. and take place solely by His power.
Thomson. and pd. to find him alternately represented as Fire.
And
it
the
first
2
man. Oliver. and therefore especially marvel at. of interrogation. ii. p. Allen and Thomson. P. we have but to turn to the "Great Spirit" of the northern Redskins.
1885. for it was thought that God kept the winds confined in caves.
117. Anything unusually fine. as being especially marvellous though in reality. 183. a deep valley. is always associated with his presence. Narrative of the British Expedition to the River Niger." be supposed that such expletives stand for any profundity of conception. Madagascar.
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
if
til. a wide plain. 1886. As to the " unknown " Great Spirit Rupl ("alas! awful truth—unknown. unusual natural
loss
" If the
Jews were at a
its
to
cause. Thus a storm was termed the chiding of God. 181-2. My lamp was Ngai.—
62
particles. then. 199.
3
i." Perhaps the clearest illustration of the simplicity of the intellectual process in question is supplied by Batchelor's account of " One Supreme the theism of the Antankaranas of Madagascar God is worshipped. his treasuries thus differing merely in name from the Greek Wind-God Eolus. p. 188.
5
Jos. In like manner miracles were called works of God. 4 Cited by S.
who makes
the
thunder. a word of admiration.
2 Waitz. to whom are offered first portions of the meat got in hunting "through the mediation of the Ihohs or idols. such as a very tall tree. Sun. of course. 1848." Similarly. they referred
it
:
. and a great
bird. I was Ngai. iii.
there
explicit stress concept is not " ethical.
. because the Hebrews found in them a way of safety which they had not looked for.
1
Id. 331. Anthropologic der Naturvolker. As. or deep water. and 3 for this purpose are the Gregres or Buhs. 201. thunder and lightning the arrows of God."
is
Even when
on the elevation of the High God. His house was in the 5 eternal snows of Kilimanjaro. a culture-hero. the "conception of the Deity seems to be marvellously vague. among the Masai. 338. 64." is the comment of our witnesses) of the Edeeyahs. Through Masai Land. Ngai was in the steaming holes. even while he was in the main superseded by a
is
He
in fact
Jupiter blended with the Vejovis of the Etruscans. as was Janus. 39. such as a very high hill. all natural events are the works of God. the The Grebus and Krus in Nigeria say they cannot see or know the Great God or Nisrah. and every place remarkable in any way. " God of Gods " among the early Romans. and regarded in the light of a manifestation of himself to men All evil of any kind comes from the lolo 4 (ghosts).' and therefore it is necessary to have some intercessory agents between them. or were to God.

p. W. p. which is that of an enterprising savage. or becomes an expression of flattery. or concerning punishments and rewards. Williams. i. It now becomes tolerably obvious that the inference of some "high" and "pure" starting-point for savage religion and ethics at what seems to theists their best. Fiji and the Fijians.
is
the Fijians. Cp. saddling anthropology with his own theism. Pharaoh.
and
that
of
Gillen." even this belief is limited to that part of Australia. This reference of things wonderful to God was not peculiar to the Jews. "is that he is a deified chief. The Northern Tribes of Central Australia. ch. which is equivalent to the Hebrew phrase. ed.
tells
1
Mr."
2
3
. "the native word expressive of Kalou. G. and displeased if they do not do so.
is also constantly heard as a qualification of Often the word 'anything superlative. Howitt. as before cited.
idea
Spencer
the
investigators speak here with Australian natives " have no
most authority. wrought with the hand of God. The Native Tribes of South-East Australia. we cannot wonder that very strong and tall men. on the other hand. Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. 500. vii. 1904. vassim. are in Genesis called sons of God. and trees of unusual size are God. which. ch. and who is supposed to have some kind of influence on the morals of the 4 natives. T. so far as anything like 3 And if. though impious robbers and whoremongers. They have not the vaguest idea of a personal individual other than an actual living member of the tribe who
the existence
what we
approves or disapproves of their conduct. exclaimed that the mind of the Gods was in Joseph. us that " these high Gods of low savages preserve from dimmest
Spinoza. " My own opinion. while used to denote the people's highest
among
notion of a God.THE SEPAEATIST FALLACY
phenomena
are
called
trees of
63
called works of God." 1
." though they did believe in a future state. 183."
the aborigines of South-East Australia " a belief exists in an
among
anthropomorphic supernatural being who lives in the sky.
we have who of all
Central
of
the explicit
assurance
of
Messrs. 4 A. is not only arbitrary but
'
obscurantist. A. Meyer. a studious missionary testified half a century ago that no fears about the future. and is in itself the flimsiest possible basis for any doctrine of a moral
who had
high " plane. whether good or bad'
sinks into a mere exclamation. 1870. on hearing the interpretation of his dream. 61. as to Nurundere's character. Nebuchadnezzar told Daniel that he possessed the mind of the holy Gods so also in Latin anything well made is often said to be wrought with Divine hands."
Finally. who has lived in some remote period. 58). Lang. 1904. E.
whatever
any Supreme Being who is pleased if they follow a certain line of what we call moral conduct." writes Taplin (p. 491. 5 Rev. are entertained 5 by them. call morality is concerned. p. p.
Even
divinity
so. The Narrinyeri. quoted by Rev. Concerning the Narrinyeri. Taplin. Supreme Being on a as their Supreme Being Nurundere or Martummere.

1
selflessness." The true explanation lies in a line of inference from
2
the facts that even among wild animals the male parent will feed the female and the young that many flocks of birds and beasts live
. Where other anthropologists see " the tyranny of the old. p.
men
. 163) that "it is as a rule difficult for young to marry before they are thirty years old.
. each community is utterly exclusive as against most of the rest. If then a savage is found conjoining an "absurd" mythology with an ethic of altruism for his own group. which ethic is very astutely taught to the young by the old in the mysteries. while a young man must consider himself fortunate if he can get an old woman.
degenerating "
—
or.. Carl Lumboltz notes (Among Cannibals." Taplin notes that boys are forbidden to eat common kinds of game to the number of thirteen.
and that even wolves hunt in packs. there is nothing incongruous in the matter. Ritual." there as in many other primitive communities living mainly by collective hunting." a conception aloof from or precedent to mythology. p. Anthropology.
more or
common
1 Lubbock. p. can transcend the ancient paralogism of the Good God who made evil and it will not be permitted to our theists to impose their estimate of primordial theism on sociological science because primitive man anticipated their favourite myth. Lang protests that he " never hinted at morals divinely and supernormally revealed. Lang sees a hyper-Christian religion of
." On the ordinary definition of " religion " that may be. Origin of Civilisation. these being reserved for the elders. it
may
be. All the while. and Religion (ii. These are conditions of relative success (^survival) for individual types and for groups of species and the law holds good for savages just as for lower animals. are ostensibly
much more
. 451-2. though it seems extravagant
but if by the "highest religious thought" he meant "highest thought " the proposition must here be negated. in their
separate communities. 5th ed.
fraternal
and com-
munistic than any Christian community but it is a bad fallacy to look for the explanation to or through some primordial conception
of a
moral Eternal. (The Narrinyeri. The old men have the youngest and bestlooking wives. 409. 16.
64
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
God which our
highest
ages of the meanest culture the sketch of a
religious thought can but fill up to its ideal." and that he always held the given ethic to be the natural product of the social conditions. happily. One asks the more insistently what he then means by arguing that religion began in a high ethical conception of deity? His statement that "all morality had been denied to the Australians" is a complete perversion of the issue. Those
. Mental and other science. pp." Mr."
It is perfectly true that the Australians. Cp. It is extremely important to the old savage that the younger should supply him with food and the principle naturally takes the shape of a doctrine of " sharing all round. Tylor. If
less in
. 23) Mr.) 2 In the revised edition of Myth. 1889. and with the conception of a Creator God.
now
stationary
— Australian
tribes
have developed among them in a perfectly natural fashion a tribal ethic of altruism.

reasoning holds good. the trouble is easily got rid of.
3 This view. lies in the colligation of
65
whole crux and puzzle of mythology.' In fine.
F
." as Mr. of a Creator God is simply a less obvious absurdity than the more naif myths concerning him it is itself as much myth as they and
: . though according to the same savage (says Mr. Lang) 2 the same God is the Omnipotent Creator of all. iii) supposes the original monotheism to have lapsed into polytheism by way of Pantheism. and excess of poetical inspiration. p." Yet the evil spirit does so in the
1
:
of sacrifice to the
entirely eaten
religion in
which he was
trained.THE SEPAEATIST FALLACY
" the
us. i. liv. Christians indeed think
they have a high conception
—
— a fact
fact that the savage not once faced by Mr.
as
perfectly natural
as
hunting. between the crude practice of sacrifice and the clinging to the theory of a divine sacrifice and the fact that a given savage. does not offer sacrifices to his God. The conception puzzles remain after the false puzzle is put right. Nor does the latter-day Christian in turn salve his case by substituting for his compromising sacrificial idea that of " the sacrifice of a contrite heart ". 3 torn.
The
joint
ethic
of
altruism for the group
fishing. imagines a God who punishes wickedness. there is nothing left to refute in Mr. Lang now tells absurd legends with the idea of a Good Unhappily many real Creator. all theistic
.
ethic
is
flagrantly mythological. and his ethic is thus incurably unsound. through a superfluity of religious life. 188) assumes to discredit one testimony by the remark " Why the evil spirit should punish evil deeds is not evident.
it
is
"irrational" in the sense of being
is
illogical. Rougemont (Le Peuvle Primitif. Lang is " highest " is intertwined with mythology just as surely as that of the savage who. p. But the beast was by the worshippers. whether sacrificing or not. Lang's theorem that Animism arose partly if not wholly by way of the " supernormal " powers of savages.
and the mountainous
never dreams of a universal altruism
Lang disposes once for all of the theory that he started with a " high " conception of a universal Father. lacking the where1 withal. 2 Mr. but only a refinement of manners or mores. 1855. 8 After seeming throughout the greater part of his work on The Making of Beligion
If this
Taplin (The Narrinyeri. for his God remains the Cause of Evil. like the more familiar thesis of a primordial monotheism.
to suppose that the unlettered savage even
But
there
is
no reason
goes through the process of pretending to himself or to his
God
that
he loves strangers or his enemies. 55) notes a case in which he saw something like a ceremony God of hunting over a slain and cooked beast.
without for a
when they talk of a universal Father moment attempting to practise universal brotherhood. there is no vital ethical difference. For the rest. Thus the ethic that for Mr. Lang (Making. is found in previous writers.
or fighting. does not make him a better man than the slaughterous Hebrew of the past.

. independently o( "super
high ethical formulas
in civili/. But (had gives oomfort It has been estabnegation of all bhe data it is very easy bo show. 9nd ed." mistletoe on the oak. Now. 994.ed
normal" Corruptions: much more may they do so anion. p. 1885 88. whose leaves spread into a rank and impenetrable tree Mr.-eil descendant bhe express aim o^i Mr.
." he elects bo stand bo bhe position bhat
they rather Mr. Lang replies that the myths flourish. Ritual. but among primitive rustics in
Europe/ alongside
of
formulas
(K>
[iOW practical ethics can ami
about a Supreme or Good don. which is is a mere am unable bo oonjeoture.
a.
they
.
i\>rtni jhilu R«vtnv.
Absurd ami gross
myths oan
arise cither out of crude fancy or out of gross praotioe.
When
<^
Brugsoh. It oould be bo oonceived bj the earlj praotisers of the ceremonj lleliaion umi Mytholooie d*r alttn leawter. pure conception oi deity sprim.
I
are alike fallacious. decides that
"from the
root and
trunk of
a. no one knows better than Mr.
B Makingof Religion.
might serve
is
bo
animistic lore
but bhere oorruption " of religion by mythology bhat
add oertain Items bo bhe mass of not a Bingle element in the so-called
is
not easily deduoible
from
normal
psyohic
experience.""
in
The two formulas
ri. But if it oould latterlj be believed la a Buoh an episode. p.
999
S.
66
lo
THE PROGEESS 01 MYTHOLOGY
'*
1
" bigfa primeval oonoep oonneot such powers with the alleged lion of an "ethioal judge.
li.
91).
. Lang's
made
final
conception and oorrupted
Animism which followed on bhat bheistio 9 By normal powers (such Beems bo be dootrine) yon get "high" conceptions. li) and Irnobius
I
1 I
Zeus and Qmtea. lished with perfeot clearness bhat bhe animizing instinot is present in animals. another apriorist. Like luxuriance. and Rtlioion. Lang's earlier anthro:
pological
work
is
precisely bo
mythologists who primitive myths.
oould ooour among primitive rustics to day. Lang how the ideas of the Bavage remain embedded in bhe religious lore ami praotioe of his civili. over bhe sturdier growth o( a religious ooncep
'
tion of
1
another root.
normal powers you get low Bave as regards bhe belief in a moral " priceless.
in.
found
it. and unless all savages are " supernormal.
'. [Protrtpt. Supposing such faoulties
I
it. the boughs and bwigS of a myth. suhsist alongside of these ami oi
countries.
. N»v. as an
to
he must admit
have
its
roots in primal Bavage
lite." it is in no way dependent on supernormal faoulties. 99.
c
Muth. to revert bo
evolutionist.
make this out as against the a priori "high" Bymbolic origins for so many
"
his is therefore mere scientific perversity ow high " original for the God-idea which.
put."' To whom this theory of things future Btate.
t\' uu'i er. \. such as oan go <m\ not only among Bavages. L898.
The
Bee
particular pp
t
6
•. it was doubtless • Beasona] oeremons trana tarred to divine olograph) In the QBual fashion.
bo
"
exist. given by Clemens Alexandrinus The BymboUo aotion there deaoribed
.j the unpleasanl itorj >>t Idv. f . by superfor
the
it.: savages.

and a future State.
We
of
are asked to suppose that primeval
man
have
(whom
had
all
the while. which revealed
to
him
all
manner
To
earliest
of forces that do not exist!' insist that " powers "
which thus
the
effect
in
tho main mere
of
delusion and corruption.
the God-ideas whioh satisfy
Brugsoh are but the modifications of earlier hy Later thought. But the classification is in keeping with Mr.
To
introduce
the
oonoept of the
is
supernormal" hy way
of
saving tho
merely to resort to mystification.
1
"
Even
this. Lang's handling of the phenomena of savage ethics and philosophy. Tylor. the cavo man.
conception
of a righteous
benevolent Supreme
Being. Animism is indeed not primitive.
'
been
—developed
'
supernormal " powers. fairies.
of of
This in despite of phrases about information not accessible to the Known ohannels about our esoaping " at moment! from tho bonds of Time and the manaoles Space" (work cited. as against
'high" thinking
tho
might just as well have had such disastrous powers). souls. and quasi-higher God-ideas <>f savages whioh so appeal to Mr. is strictly
Animistic.or whatovor else we figure him to havo
with trespassers. demons. As if the Question were ever supposed to •>•• raised In early Animism at all! <>n thit view. B9B :D. Lang has here in oiioct altered thu whole significance of tho term. hy natural inference."
"
THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
" root " alike of tho
67
tho same
tho
minor myths and the larger
is
mythoposic faculty of the evolving
those
man
. having thought out a righteous " Omnipotent God." " Animism was not lucdxt for the earliest iilea of a moral Eternal " [MaMno. unities that Iwniusf tho early man ili'l not ruiso tho question of "spirit. Lang. i»i». 71." is surely an odd way of classifying things. The very conceptions of a Supreme Being which he sets J and his Over against those of Animism are instances of Animism
in
men (who
turn
I
. are rightly to be described as supernormal. hut late ami metaphysical Mr. Mr. is doctrinal chaos.
mind) began with a " high
that
is. IHii). as Bavages conceive
righteousness
and
benevolenoe:
that
without a single
had the concept (though tho ape-man animistic. l».
these matters with
his theory of
the making of religion
is
thus
worse than nugatory. liiiiii. it applies tO oxuetly
2
mn. can and do arise and flourish among savages and more
"high" theorem
advanoed communities independently of any of the supernormal His whole colligation of processes contended for hy Mr. As framed hy Dr.
-
preliminary
Then. and the total result. of oourae.
habits
<>r
we must hold
"
to
animistic. a " moral Eternal " who represents only his own morality. Beliefs in ghosts. repeat. as they do with so much of the rest of
the savage's vocabulary. resurrection. Lang are but thought -forms into whioh later men put higher moral
and philosophical notions." ami
:|
i
. habit before him) the primal man proceeded straight to a universalist theistio abstraction all tho while playing the oannibal
animistic.

One is disposed to say. § 6 and cp. None the less. and Religion. ii. theoretic formulas of his own.
is
Somewhat
similar in form to Mr. 4 There is nothing in worship but what existed before in mythology. Ritual. again. the historic ritual may give rise to new concrete myths. 147 Mr. and Beligion. 4 Darmesteter.
very severe on Huxley's "crude" position. The Golden Bough. of the Zendavesta.
:
however. Lang expressly posits " a rational and an irrational stream of thought. ii. 1908) Mr. Lang has in view. as cited above. 282." In one passage (Myth. Ignaz Goldziher. he elsewhere makes the severance before noted. 156. pp. " to our [savage] predecessors
what we thought most our own" a proposition which cuts both ways where Mr. of a student of a religion as
which there is no special motive to set up arbitrary distinctions.A. ii. p. while noting elsewhere that Dr.
. Lang is
1
. i.
to the conception of the
it
myth
it
a narrower scope than
is
I believe
necessary to separate
strictly
from the conception
of the
the unconscious assumption which Mr. of course. 147. Mr. p." and another aspect " sacred. 1st ed." when both alike are the best the savage can do to explain his cosmos. in
particular this
"I have given
usually done. hut something else. Bitual. one aspect of primitive anthropomorphism " absurd. It is to be kept in view. ii. "For myth changes while custom remains constant.. 300) Mr. while affirming just such a severance between savage ethic and savage myth. but
To
call
1
grind. 1st ed. 195 Myth. but which a
inadequate. to trans.
!
. with. 191. ii. 2nd ed. In the words of a mythologist with no supernaturalist axe to
of the question. his classifying of all stories of " moral " and " creative " Gods as " religion. ch. justifiable as such at the time when they
were propounded.
The Metaphysic of Beligion. 10. but simply hypotheses. In his later essay on Theories Origins of Beligion (in The Origins of Beligion."
§ 2. ii. 141. 3 Frazer. Lang himself takes up this position. work cited. Lang would have it cut only one " and their
—
we
are indebted for
much
of
—
errors were not wilful extravagances or the ravings of insanity. that while ritual thus always presupposes a mythical process. Bergmann. Introd. See above. lxxiii." making "prayers and hymns" on the contrary " rational. And to condemn Huxley and others for making a severance between 2 savage ethic and savage theology." Frazer. 2nd ed. 62. etc.P. is to give the inconsequence an aggressive emphasis."
to
"
3
fuller
experience has proved to be
And
in the words. 211. is an unscientific inconsequence. On p. Lang's effort is to show that the savage's Moral Eternal is not in origin a Ghost or Ancestor-God. Lang's doctrine
that of a
learned continental mythologist and Hebraist
who
preceded him." and confines the "irrational" to "myth and ritual.—
68
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
title
chronic restriction of the
of
"myth"
to
stories
which make
figure as animals or as immoral. "So he it: hut in any case he remains a product of Animism. Cp. 2nd ed. a professed adherent of the schools of
Kuhn
and
Max
Miiller." is not merely a begging
Gods
an ejection of scientific method from the problem. R.
Dr. 5." As if prayers and hymns were not ritual and myth-narrative 2 Making of Religion. Tylor has said the same thing. 2nd ed.

There is an immense difference between the ancient mythical view of the origin of nature and that later cosmogonic system.
If
the mythologist gives
it
up. of a kind frequent which is so commonly carried on with an unfixed terminology and an irregular logical method. Even if the Babylonians got them from the Akkadians. What
:
many remains
foreign
Hebrew Bible contains. these materials are in the terms of the case myths. then the mind is ready to receive foreign cosmogonic ideas. to mark of mythic matter but to set aside the second order as non-mythological is simply to renounce one of the most interesting provinces
scientific history.—
THE SEPAEATIST FALLACY
of religion.
treated either
1
by believers or by unbelievers as part
Mythology among the Hebrews."
:
This startling procedure
"
justified as follows
The latter point was of especial importance in reference to the Hebrew Myth.
who
is
to take
it
in
hand
handle the stories of the Fall and the Flood as expressions of the ethical attitude of the adaptors but the stories about Adam and Eve and Noah remain myths. which can be fitted into the frame of its religious thought and accommodated to its religious views. moreover. I think. they must at some point have rooted in relatively "primitive" fancy. mainly from Chaldseo-Babylonian materials. p. when the times are ripe for cosmogonic speculations. But when the myth has utterly vanished from consciousness. the solution of these questions by the Hebrews was produced in the later period of civilization and from a foreign impulse. is to be regarded rather as a mere literary creation than as a view of the origin of things emanating directly from the mind of the people.
It is perfectly fitting. and the advanced apologist of our own day excitedly protests when they are
?
The
hierologist
may
. Granted that the Genesaic cosmogony is a literary compilation.
tar.
an obvious confusion."
in mythological discussion. besides Hebrew myth. intr. and hence I have not treated as Hebrew mythical matter the Cosmogony of Genesis.
of
xxv. It is immaterial to the question whether at that or any other point in the development they were
There
is
here. since.
specially shaped or influenced
the
same we come
possibility holds
by men of relatively uncommon genius good in every mythological case. This was the case with the Hebrews. a cosmogony appears as a state of development of the ancient myth. as I show in the last chapter.
that the
of
primitive
it is incumbent on the between the two orders mythologist. late adaptations of myths made by way of cosmogonic teaching or quasito then
is this.
of the study."
1877.
religion. Eng.
69
mythology
and especially
to exclude
from the sphere
of primitive
1
the questions of
Cosmogony and Ethics
is
(the origin of Evil). So long as mythical ideas are still living in the mind. though under an altered form.
clearly the distinction
.
. nay. which. made in or after the Exile.

" and "Psychological. with different Godnames. 114. a necessary complement to all finite " knowledge.70
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
Obviously they come within Mr. he perceives finite objects whether or not he is conscious that they are finite.
really sure that these
myths
are in essentials non-
any
It is quite impossible to grant to Dr. however."
Nor can we be
Hebraic.
s
P. Goldziher but it may be well to analyze it afresh in the professedly revised form given to it in Midler's Gifford Lectures of 1888 on what he calls Natural Religion. Goldziher that at point in Hebrew history. The attempt to draw a
1
legitimate
our consciousness." "Anthropological.
Lang is always insisting. " if it is to hold its place as a
." "Religion. sought to blend all together. and finding more elaborate statements current among their more civilized and cultured conquerors. clearly retained " primitive " elements in virtue of that tenacious tendency in mythic usage on which Mr. Then a dog might
1
P. As a matter of fact. begin with sensuous experience. That doctrine preceded and presumably inspired the formula of Dr." as distinguished from the later stages of Physical. leading as it does to the most contradictory results.
myth had
utterly vanished
it
possibly do so save after
division of species between absolute myth and mythless religion in a visibly composite whole breaks down on whatever lines it is attempted. in some spontaneous way. must.
a
dog may do the same that is to say. 2 As the argument proceeds." which is repeated later on. whether
it
of
or not. or. like all other knowledge. though complicated by astronomical knowledge and speculation." he tells us in his fifth lecture. it is very plain that if " from the very beginning
is
insisted that " every perception involves. if you like.
2
P." Mark the "begin.
men
perceive (not conceive) the infinite in perceiving the
:
finite. embodying different cosmogonic notions." Now.
P. 125. In any case. the redactors have preserved two creation stories.
. it
of
element
we are conscious and the conclusion of the lecture is that this perception "from the very beginning formed an ingredient. the Babylonian myths themselves. Such an attempt it is that brings Professor Max Midler to confusion with his Schleiermacher theorem of a perception of the infinite at all stages of thought. " the [old]
from consciousness. 141." How could it had been crowded out by a later myth ? Rather we are bound to suppose that the Jews of the Exile. Lang's comprehensive species of absurd and offensive anecdotes. 140.
some perception
4
3 of the infinite ". having some simple cosmogonic myths of their own.

we may be
(which is only a single necessary perception) without really thinking.
. " It gave her the sense this though of a Beyond. and say that a perception of the infinite which is not " real thought " is a chimera."
If
that be not explicit enough. Is that an answer?" Of course it is an answer to him He has been telling us that there is no "real" thought without words. the previously beginning of religion at all.
the definition
:
we have
infinite
" Religion consists in the perception
to influence
under such manifestations as are able
I look
the moral
character of man.
—
ends in threefold and irreparable confusion. Soon it is intimated that "we must restrict the sphere of religion. saying she did
with the lecturer's comment. and that thought = reason.
upon
this as a definition of religion in its
origin"
is to say.
P.
He
explains
that his
expansion of his definition of religion to include
moral influence was
made
in
Pfleiderer
acknowledgment on his previous
of the force of the criticisms of Professor
definition
."
is
have the beginning of religion." the Professor says. so far as it is founded
—
!
on perceptions
influence
of
the infinite. 188.
conscious of the infinite
not real thought.
i
it
being so
5
much
"
his
P. alleged beginning of religion was not a And yet. and embody that common property in a sign or a name. after since it did not affect the moral character of man. 168.
We
religious for those perceptions of the
must reserve the adjective unknown or the infinite which
and yet again.
P.
Further. that thought and language are the same His opponents simply meet him thing. after the "whether we are conscious of it or not. on his own ground. stipulated that " Real thought
But already the Professor had
Then the beginning
of religion. " I am told that there are many savage tribes even now who do not possess a word
for finite
and infinite.
That
lifts
a
man
above the
realities of this material life is religion. but in a little while. and that is the true life of all religion": Professor thus The there is no moral influence whatever involved. 116.
of the
man's actions and his whole moral nature".
a
P.
on the Professor's showing. 193.
Pfleiderer position nor adhered to his own. But that is only one stage of the confusion.
we have
its
woman who
what he did
.
but he has neither adopted the He has simply used the
two
1
definitions inconsistently
8
and
at
random. 2 This is tolerably sequent. 568.
P.THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
1
71
combine the begins when we percepts of sensation into concepts by discovering something they share in common. 6 the dictum that " anything that all. we have in the closing lecture
(italics
here Miiller's). 125.
saluted the sun at
the story of the old Samoyede rising and setting.
P.

And on the next page Herr Sack notes that it was in the same exilic period."
prescription by
of the
first. Pfleiderer' s influence is to be seen in the form given by Israel Sack to the summaries in his meritorious and often luminous work on the transition of Judaism from Bible-dom to Talmudism. Wundt. decides that " all percepts and sentiments become religious as soon as they have reference to some ideal existence which can supply the wishes and requirements of the human heart ". while the forces of the myth-mongers and ritualists expand as the restrictive element is removed. ethical or mythical. that there was set up the
is
That
to say. 25.
The second testimony
. It was in the exilic period. or any other system that holds by sacred books. altjiidische Religion
xv. to pure religion.
disposes
The conditions
is
of the exile
would naturally develop a
but the
a substitute for the old
private as distinguished from a public habit of devotion
Zizith symbol
precisely the effort to
.
nationalistic regimen
to assert that they
. much as he claims to be and anti-theoretic and the equally a priori dogma of Pfleiderer refuses to combine with it.
historical
.
Yahweh
to Moses. 37-41."
2
emergence of the purely religious was only the movement towards the purely religious.72
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
tendency to cleave to any doctrine he has once adopted that he does not logically readjust his thinking even to a change he is disposed
His first definition was a priori. the
beginning of a
Zizith symbol
of
— the "ribbon of
which
is
blue upon the fringes of the borders
given out in the Mosaic law as a
3
their garments. the Protestant impulse being on the way to euthanasia in rationalism. Judaism is tribal to this day and Christianity.
." Nor can the claim be any better made out for any later style of Judaism.
l
of the age.
1
2
s
Die
Cited by Mliller. born
to make. who is a good deal more of a psychologist than either of these writers. that " there came upon the Yahweh religion the pressure of a new element. and that account covers the great mass of ancient mythology.
1889. the personal godliness (Gottesverehrung) independent of social life. It was the first step towards the releasing of the religion of Israel from Palestinian soil. instead of progressively denuding itself of myth and symbol and ritual. he writes.
im Uebergange vom Bibclthum zum Talmudismus. shows everywhere the tendency to make more of them than ever. p. 73.
Numbers. which first really sabbatized the Sabbath. p. and generally towards the conceptual {begrifflichen) sundering of the religious from the social-
ethical. namely the purely religious cult.
make
and of people in that frame of mind it is idle have risen from tribalism.

Milton or Butler. Sir George somewhat obscures the point by saying of the Greeks that " we must draw a sharp line of severance between their theology and their religion. 3. lecture in Beligious Systems of tlie World.
appear to
number of classical historians and some cases well-informed as to anthropology be conducted to separatist conclusions by the
1 On Greek and Latin Religions.
in vain. the anecdotes become under Mr.
p. 184."
That
is
we may
differentiate aspects.
religion of a people
and
mythology. of " the history of the Gods " as " the auxiliary science of most
—
Zeus espoused Themis and by her begat the Destinies. and that according to which Eurynome bore to him the Charites. p. insists that the " inmost and most essential characteristic "4 of a myth is just " the religious element a straining of things the
—
other
way
in religion's
name. 3 Id.
§ 3. In the Mythology of the Aryan Nations.
fallacious
73
we find Sir George Cox avoiding the extremes to which theological bias has led some lay " In one sense. But 3. who is reputed to have been a religious man." for an auxiliary that is essential is In any case.
draw
distinctions
1
between the
to say.
In these conflicts of judgment we can recognise certain specific forms of bias the Philhellenic in Ottfried Miiller. if we use religion in the sense attached to it by Locke or Newton. p. if not absurd. p.
Ottfried Miiller. though in
in general. 1845.
We
are hardly even
entitled to speak.
we may
their
not.
but cannot negate the organic connection. thetic scholar has well argued that in Homer the conception of Zeus the moral governor and Zeus the cloud-compeller is one twofold thing and he goes on to cite as essentially and even nobly religious the set of myths in which Zeus has offspring by different females the " beautiful and sublime fable in the Theogony" wherein
." he says. 175."'
And
Miiller
to be entitled like another to his view of
religion's
"true guise.
true
religion.
genuine. " we may.
. which is what we are concerned with. yet another
Miiller. But Ottfried Miiller. the pro-Christian and the pro-theistic in others."
Julius to wit. protests
that
"
He who
does not here recognize
religion. 2nd. ed. far. Eng. for
him have Moses and the prophets written
would seem
Nay. the same sympapractically a part of one process.
Some Academic
Categories. Lang's system slightly offensive.THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
Here. with worship of the Grecian 2 importance to mythology. and in another mythologists. 2 Introduction. Inasmuch as Zeus here plays as usual the adulterer. On the Theory of Myths. 217. p. in Voices of the Church in Reply to Strauss. 1 Julius Mtiller." But he goes on to insist on the historic unity of the whole system. 186. as at other points. further set of confusions is
—
introduced into our problem by a
students who.
defending Christianity against
the mythological
interpretation of
" Strauss.

Principal of
Durham
College. by Dr. 4 Work cited. Jevons's handling of the special phenomenon of mythology. and magic from the field of religion also the occasional rehabilitation of all of hose factors. F. trans.
one ruling conception not on the line of This purpose incidentally
is
among
other things. 1892." 6 and (3) that the Roman cult was " nothing 7 but organised magic" that is to say. we are concerned mainly with Dr. p. Plutarch's Romane Questions. "we might more fitly call the Roman faith Pan8 daimonism than Polytheism." 5 (2) that "the Italians had no Nature-myths .
7
Id. i. Part I. Jevons. xxxv. " had not advanced as far as polytheism. however. Jevons. Romische Mythologie.
8
xv and xxix." 4 inasmuch as " the Romans had not advanced as far as polytheism. cp. B. " the genuine Italian Deities which remain fall into two classes. and the excommunication alike of reason. 2 In the present connection. xxviii. ch. by Philemon Holland. science.
. polytheism was unknown in Italy. In the same section in which he affirms that the Romans.
A
close study of
to
seems
to reveal
make out
is
that
what
evolution of Christianity
not religion. mythology.
to the History of Religion." he explains that after "having eliminated" all the loan-gods.
to the ascertainment of the differentia
it
— the determination
involves. philosophy. Jupiter." of which the first " can scarcely be dignified by the name " such gods as Janus. in terms of Dr. has devoted
a bulky but brilliant volume
of religion. p.
was not
" religion " at
all. of which he has
. 1896.
i
\
An Introduction
2 3
1603. 5 Id." and the second includes
. Jevons's essay happily enables us to dispose of his first propositions by later dicta of his own his candour guarding us from acceptance of his thesis. ed. of gods. xxiv. before the arrival of Greek influences. The main theses are (l) that " until borrowed from Hellas. pp. the sanctification of religious cannibal-
ism.74
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
of
academic habit
religious
isolating the
phenomena
most
evolution
from the main mass
hierological
science.
Id.
One
1
of
the
Greek and Roman and accomplished of these
of
of
anthropological
scholars.
separately treated in his very interesting introduction to the
Questions of Plutarch. Dr. in view of the fluidity of early Roman religious ideas.
The
thesis as
a
whole is an adventurous application of a somewhat haphazard remark of Preller that.
6
Eep. i. p. p.
3
Roman
In this entertaining essay we are presented with more than one
of those invalid definitions
which are the delight of the theologian and the bane of all science. Jevons's
—
teaching elsewhere." The comparison of a few pages of Dr. U. See Pagan Christs. but were still in the purely animistic stage. xviii.
monotheism.

'
1
Cp. inferior. had " no polytheism. animistic of the great gods " is a mere evolution from an albeit he is all spirit." and has the same functions with the latter Yet we are also told along cognized and worshipped as " greater. In defiance of all fetiches" scientific usage. p.
'
title
to all "spirits"
who
are not (1)
"members
of a family or a
community.—
THE SEPAEATIST FALLACY
75
Mars. xxi. which denies the
. xxvii." These " genuine Italian gods stand forth essentially and fundamentally different from those of Greece. wherewith shall it be resuscitated ? The best defence to be made for Dr. of Lehrbuch der Beligionsgeschichte). 126-127.
2
Id. 6 Id. When the theorist undoes his theory. than beings. cited. nymphs. lvi.
. Jevons is that he has been countenanced in his conflicting propositions by conflicting authorities. 4 Introduction 5 Id." Now. he calls the Romans' " gods " at once and " abstractions. and dryads). Diana. in a which the Greek and others were not. Venus. Jevons does not admit any sort of myth " in the religion of the ancient Italians. Hephaistos. Hercules.. p. and Ahuramazda are excluded from the category though Yahweh presumably comes in as not being one of " the gods." (2) plastically represented in human form." but " God." Yet even here the original definer is drawing a line between Gods and " divine beings in the sphere of naturenature-life. etc.e. pp." 5 though by implication he concedes personality rather to their tree spirits while pronouncing their dii indigetes 6 numina." we have here the express avowal that " inferior." All the while he is insisting that
. Aphrodite." this amazing definition (which would make Gods and Goddesses of many heroes. Horos. xxvii. animistic powers to whom the title of spirit is the highest that can be assigned.
3
Id. p." that the Romans." was nothing but organized magic " that is. For this mortal leap
—
in origin the sole semblance of pretext is the dictum that Janus and function is not to be distinguished from those inferior. Chantepie de la Saussaye's Manual of the Science of Religion (Eng. or forces. trans. xix. Indra. and (4) conceived as " ideally good and beautiful. Hathor. p. Siva. p. believing in a number of " great gods " who were recognized as such in contradistinction from " inferior " spirits. a magical implement. as Janus had been immediately before described as one of one the great Roman gods. Ares." Then in the next section he recoils to the conclusion that
"the Italian god was a
that " the cult
sense in
and fetich i." and Dr. (3) morally By envisaged." and that between animism and polytheism there is a difference in kind. For his spurious chronological distinction between animistic spirits" and "gods" he has the sanction of the futile definition of "gods" by Chantepie de la Saussaye. 1891.

Id. the corn-spirit. as in Hellas. myths. ch. xii. Jevons ascribes to the early Romans the mental methods at once of negroes. against it As
. 28. in the midst of his the marriage of Hercules with Acca Larentia and Flora. numcn. i. p. Dr.
Coming
as straight as
may
be to the mythological issue. tells us of the myths of
is
2
4
History of Borne.
after recognizing
the organic unity of the whole Greek system of "theology" and
religion."
of place. fee.
Of course the proper
state-
ment would be simply that the surviving Latin mythology is bare or 2 commonplace. cited.
i.
and the old
Roman way
thought was in general primitively concrete. And in the process he denaturalizes the meanings alike of fetich. what are? Gladstone. speaks of the Goddess of Night in Homer as possibly an " obsolete Nature-Power standing in the same relation to an imper1
"Nature-myth". ed. of philosophers.
183.
Abstraction
of
a quasi-philosophic process
decisive."
3
personification lay at the root of
the
Roman
"Abstraction and as well as of the
is
Hellenic mythology. but the reverse. xii. 1868.
. Eng. denials. who seems to have inspired Dr.
is
But
is
the admission as to " personification "
personification of Nature-forces there
Where
there
Jevons in turn.
sible.
he has twice stated the historic fact
lies at
"
:
In Italy.
George Cox.
i.76
the
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
Romans were
of
at the stage of
is
meaning
animism
"animism". ch. and Dr. The phrase cited is an echo of Mommsen but the idea is one of Mommsen's many self-contradictions. strictly so called.
The word
is
" abstraction "
here clearly out
.
184-6. In short.
in the elevated sense. pp.
Mythology of the Aryan Nations."
succumbs
to the fallacy of empirical classification
upon
Speaking of the Romans."
1
It is
not here meant that the Latins were specially religious. there
the foundation of the popular faith the same
common
treasure
of allegorical
and symbolical views
4
of nature. 169. Jevons partially excused by the countenance given to
his language in other treatises. Barnett. On the latter head he may be defied to cite any form of primitive belief in any living race in which " powers of nature " are not conceived as having life and will. he says that in their system "so thin was the disguise [of the natural forces worshipped] that the growth of a Latin mythology. and of modern men of science. became imposanother
side. and the unquestionable " the tendency to read wills into the " forces
of nature.
5
Work
3 Id. and abstraction.
Sir
we
again find Dr. and of the 5 If these are not Natureworship of the Dea Dia. And if no such case can be found in living mankind it is an idle fantasy to reduce the whole beliefs of the early Romans to that unexampled category. ii. lxxxiv-v. ch.

seem equally insoluble problems in the light of such reasoning.
A
that
scrutiny of this play of declamation reveals only this meaning. 1869.
Prof. of
1901. Nux is not a Nature-myth.
in
order to understand " the lesson of evolution of Greek
religion "
evolved from. trans. while Leto is not one. to Eng. not being What to impersonated. and where to find a Greek Nature-myth concerning Night.
Inventus Mundi.THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
sonated Leto. Greece sees God with her own eyes and if we would share the loveliness of her vision we must put away from our thoughts the uncouth forms which had been worn by her northern forefathers' deities. and thus gave birth to the divine forms of Hellenic religion. Barnett means just "paradox.
we must put out of our minds The steps are worthy
made
to
all
recollection of
what
It
it
of
the conclusion. 259. as Gaia or as Demeter to Here. Barnett that
" No truth is more vital than the seeming paradox 2 which declares that Greek myths are not nature myths. Steuding's Greek
and Boman Mythology and Heroic
Legend. or the Hermae
. The Greek myth is the child of the devout and Coarse lovely imagination of the noble race that dwelt around the iEgsean.
. or should be thought of as definitely
not nature-myth. to ask Dr.
. The ape is not further removed from the man than is the nature myth from the religious fancy of the Greeks as we meet them in history. Barnett
heavenly bodies as
to Plato.
3
4
1
Italics ours.
ceases to be a nature-myth. Jevons when he reads the deliverance of Dr. It can show how gods are born in the mind of the savage and moulded into his image. Comparative mythology can teach us much. Lionel N. being impersonated make of a non-impersonated Demeter who evolves into Here. Jevons's lines may perhaps be realised by Dr. the slough cast off by her gods as they grew into shapes of godliness and beauty.
is
implied that Greek
attempt
is
myths evolve from nature-myths but not an show how or at what point a given myth
would presumably be
useless."
:
.
combined with Dr. ceased to
when the notion of the personal spirits. Barnett's. But it cannot reveal to us the heart of the Greek as his devout thoughts turned toward his gods. fantasies of brutish forefathers in their northern homes softened beneath the southern sun into a pure and godly beauty. on its way from the barbarian be nature-myth or when the cult of Demeter
. True it is that in regions where nature and history hindered Greek religion from developing its potential riches* that slough was still often trailed by the figures of popular faith but these exceptions point 4 all the more effectively the lesson of evolution in Greek religion." In a glorification of Greece he might have given a Greek word its Greek and only reasonable meaning. 2 By "seeming paradox" Dr."
1
77
On
!
that view. p. To what a shifting sand of arbitrary classification we should be led on Dr.
Pref.
It
and
for scientific
purposes
it is
needless.
and Persephone passed from Pelasgic nature-myth into Hellenic religion or whether the arrows of Apollo in Homer.

its numina. But this dearth is a phenomenon to be considered and comprehended not an absolute datum to be founded on without examination. The sternly legal mind of Borne. Jevons there are none in Roman mythology " formless conceptions. Still less is it permissible to fill the void with verbalist formulas about the
to be sundered
1
. Barnett rules that " while the plastic fancy of the Greek was actively remodelling the uncouth and formless conceptions of barbarous faith into moral and human personalities the Roman went on a different course.e.
the pell-mell of a people's
an abstraction of one
incarnate in the town-clerk. we may confess that Dr. Jevons. Instead of gods it worshipped deified functions." and they it is a body of have not yet Where then in Aryan or non-Aryan evolution is there grown up room for a nature-myth ? Turning back to the special case of Rome. But the assumption that the Italian character and temperament differed fundamentally from the Greek to the extent of keeping the
lax writing
this subject is to be
upon
and
Romans
inevitably devoid of a native mythology and poetry
is
a
persistent fallacy of apriorism. For Dr." (Work cited. who presumably sees many nature-myths in Greece.
:
!
:
" sternly legal
lore to
mind
of
Rome " — reducing
will.78
of
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
Athens
in history.
The outstanding
it
facts in regard to
its
Roman
literature are that. Barnett there are no nature-myths in Greek mythology they had formerly been embodied in " formless conceptions." and have now been elided.) What does he mean?
*
. We are dealing not with a scientific theorem but with a flight of rhetoric. are really so godly
and lovely in conception as from savage myth as ape from man.
is
checked in
birth
by the
1 Professor Steuding similarly. has some pretext for his proposition in the scantiness of the mythmaterial preserved to us from ancient Italic folklore. § 2. Dr. For Dr. what we do know first and last is that the native growth was in large part obliterated in books by the imported growths of Greece. after admitting that " it is probable that the Greeks were once" at the stage of thought of primitive man— i. that their race was probably like others— says " it is unlikely that they were ever exclusively dominated by evolved these conceptions. Jevons.
first. which looked upon the person merely as a unit in corporations ruled by definite law.. was little likely to lend human personality to its conceptions of divine forces. Concerning the latter. significant only of the persistence of rhetorical methods in what ought to be psychological science in our universities. Like Dr." Observe the upshot.
Much
to recognize the exact value of literary
accounted for by failure artistic development in Greek mythology in contrast with Roman.

when the conditions begin to favour its growth. And even Preller recognizes that " in the earlier Italian antiquity perhaps
much
later.
against
those earlier
Graeco-Italian
1
influences. In insisting that nevertheless there was no early Latin epic. stamped itself upon the face of Eoman literature. 2 Rbmische Mythologie. 4. Prof. secondly." or that they imagined minor deities by the hundred and told no stories about them. ed.
anil
.
iEneas
Yesta
. Eng. Lavinia is same time a solar and river divinity."
1 Cp. concerned mainly about natural history so-called.
the
conquest of
Greece by the
Eoman arms
of
letters.
see. by Pliny. concerned only to deride the pagan beliefs. as we shall went upon lines unfavourable to the preservation of much beyond the abundant ferial traces of the popular religion." To dwell on the bare fact that so little was saved is to miss the
problem.
." but by the
The
culture influences of the iEgean. Kohler. Even that gleaning suffices to show that the Eomans lived in a world of imaginary beings. of fundamental differences of race bias. Yet
Varro evidently collected a great deal " On Divine Things.
" of the stuff of epic
and mythology
"
may have
existed. Ennius is half-Greek and a freethinker to and precisely when the Eoman culture-conditions become boot such as to make possible a native growth strong enough to react
conquest for centuries
. as
is
partly recognised by Preller
in the act of repeating the formula. p. 1906. scanning the palimpsest. as cited. Ancient Legends of Roman History. or baldly. 1865. Stories by the hundred must have been current among the people before the finished song of Greece. and to say that they conceived of these merely as " forces. p. Since Hartung there has been no 3 question that the process took place but German and English scholars alike have been strangely slow to realize the correlative truth that there was something primordial which Greek influences overspread.
finds ancient lore underlying all the Grsecized versions of things. 42. note.
is
identified as "
is
and iEneas
at the
merely an ancient Latin god. is to propound a countersense. Ettore Pais. Preller is forcing an open door.
3
Preller. tr." all of which is lost to us save what is preserved in malice by Augustine. p. reinforced by her art.
79
kept primitive by continuous wars of and that.
The Eoman literary and political evolution. from the very start it is overshadowed by the Italo-Greek lore. was lost.
so tenaciously clung to by
German scholars.THE SEPAEATIST FALLACY
Etruscan
conquest.
.
which
through lack of literature and as a result of the early loss of 2 national freedom. 89. The latest Italian scholarship.
educes the conquest of
Eome by
Greece
on the side
determined not by an
earlier Greek evolution had been occult force of " race character.

g."
It
may
well be. 1906. p. 21. In the Hebrew books themselves. not of the peasants.:
80
"
THE PKOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
" Numa and Tullius. 142. were merely river and solar divinities. Kings of Turnus also is a river deity. § vi. Christian.
'
Prof. tr.
The Dii
Indigetes. And.
priests.
1
—
—
kindred process of Evemerization. that
some
of the higher
Eoman
" abstrac-
were the work of the State Such a creation appears to arise in the case of the Egyptian Maat." tullius being an old Latin word for a spring. Jevons's able showing.
Just such specific spirits are found by the hundred in the
folklore of
contemporary primitives. Cp. as cited.
history. 3 E. " Lucretia and Virginia. tr.
1
2
. 1897. Religion of the Ancie?it Egyptians. and.
myth
is
disguised
as
pseudo-
One
difference there
is
is
between
Eoman and Hebrew Evemerism
. Steuding. of rivers and springs
and
hills.. 200-201." Eome. 1899.
made wholesale on
such
official
the savage principle of securing control over
natural forces as over daimons by
But apart from
pragmatism. Barnett's pref. ens. p.
was official and 2 by Dr. 4 Erman. were
naming them. the process
pragmatic. become mere mortals Vulcan was changed into the lame and one-eyed Horatius Codes. Handbook of Egyptian Religion. F. she is said to 5 have " no place in mythology. and Dr. § 190.
the latter
On
one
side. Ettore Pais. whose priests were the supreme judges..
turned to monotheistic account the former retained its original character of imperfect rationalism and while the poets turned deities into heroes the archaeologists turned them into forces
of Nature. in short. and daughter of the supreme God Ee " (or Ea). Eng." The inference that no tales were told of these divinities until they had been Evemerized into mortals would be a thoughtless solution indeed.
it
is
the etymologizing archaeologist. and those in Turner's Samoa." Yet even this " pure abstraction "
tions. Eng.
doubtless. She is seriously described by a hierologist as " entirely 4 a product of human [sic] invention" and "a pure abstraction". indeed. 1907. Goddess of Truth and Justice. the notion that the Komans "had no mythology" is as untenable as the thesis of Eenan to be examined hereinafter that the Semites had none. and
not the peasant. W. The Caroline Islands. in origin two goddesses. Introd. App. to the Romane Questions. the lists of deities of the Caroline Islanders given by Mr. 1884.
of disease
who
sees "forces" or "allegories" in the deities
of
and health. tr. though mentioned in some of the oldest texts. under a
. to
3
whom
no
traveller has ever
ascribed a " sternly legal mind." as well as the Dii Indigetes.
sowing and reaping. and who was regarded as wife of the divine judge Thoth. pp. iii-v. Eng. . Ancient Legends of Eoman History. and the god Minucius was transformed into a tribune of the people. 5 Wiedemann.

102. It is a mere evasion of all psychological science to
suggest otherwise. popular mythology is a ground
mythology.
ideas failed to find expression in the
but not the most abstract of their Godform of a God or animal or
is
compound
figure. Handbook.
"anthropomorphic" from Egyptian religious In early Eome there is no trace of any such attempt to negate anthropomorphism and it is quite clear that the veto on images in Jewry and Persia never for a moment interfered with an
to
excluding
the
thought. Thunder. storm. Wiedemann.
Were not
the Egyptians. The gloomy fancy of the Ponapean peoples the swamp. is the
—
1
Id. every family its household God. every clan its presiding spirit. the royal devotee
there
is
mind But it is represented by the king's will as the solar disk. Christian.
75. i F. W.
of the
The worship
or totemism." That Maat should not figure in for supposing that her cult was
myth a part of The most probable explanation we can frame of the 2 countless God-names in Egyptian religious lore is that they grew up at the hands of the priests somewhat as did the Eoman Dii Indigetes
exclusive. famine. the greater part malignant.
What
has not been
achieved in popular Christianity was certainly not achieved by the early Eomans. or stream. the solar disk. 2nd ed. " the Aten is never represented
as anthropomorphic. planting.
Significantly enough. the Egyptians and the Hindus had abstractions
enough
in their
pantheon
. p. every tribe its tutelary deity. hill. then. p."
. death all these events and phenomena have their supernatural patron or Master-spirit. rain.
. lightning.
anthropomorphic conception of the God. 21. a wife. 85 sq. harvest.
2
3
Cp.
judgment-hall of Osiris
form. Every village. Hibbert Lectures. p.THE SEPAEATIST FALLACY
is
81
a daughter. and the hanging woods of the inland wilderness with hosts of spirits. the reef. Renouf. Erman.
If to
and she
is
is
she received the dead in the constantly represented in female
. birth. The Caroline Islands. has its genius loci.
Of the people of Ponape in the Caroline Islands
that
11
we
are told
Ani or deified ancestors. war. disease. coupled with a sort of zoolatry backbone of the Ponapean faith. p. p. every valley.
G
. some beneficent. the mountain. wind. 39.
be and do this
to have "
mythology will have to be recast.
polytheists
In a sense. festival. but not for refusing to see in a late
at the
hands
'?
of
Eoman
officials. the one attempt in Egyptian
history to exclude such a presentment of deity
that of Akhnaten
(Amenophis IV).
no place in mythology. with numerous life-giving hands at the end of long rod-arms and we may safely say that that is the nearest approach
a deliberate attitude of
3
:
Here of Aten. fishing. and a mother
!
.

E. Dr. 1878.
(1846)
:
. 118-119. a Sea-Goddess. he perpends thus
"But
the
Romans had
it
only
(!)
an abstract conception
of the
Deity. to the Romane Questions. 2 Introd. the Huaca or Vaka of the Peruvians). the
emblem
of the fairy
Li-Ara-Katan. it is " impossible to suppose that they are cognized either as " abstractions or as fixedly theriomorphic. the blue starfish of the God of rain. a Moon-Goddess. Jevons and Ihne would have us place them at a higher stage of evolution than the Romans of the early
ceived by the
2
dogs. a missionary wrote at a time when their traditional lore was still fresh " Nearly all animals they suppose anciently to have been men who performed great prodigies. and within reach of
1 Of the Narrinyeri tribe of Encounter Bay. and it is extremely unlikely that they are definitely conceived as animals save in the facile 1 fashion in which man and animal interchange in universal folk-lore. the shark of the God of war. and darkness.
"In their mythology they have a submarine Paradise (Packet). Gods of districts. heroes. Jevons supposes that the Lares praestites were originally con-
Romans "not in human shape.
After representing the
Romans
as being under an impression of
3
:
perpetual supernatural
controls. the other a blazing torch a gloomy conception very much resembling the Yomi of Japan and the Yama of the early Vedas. 59). then. p. below or above the stage at which Dr. And yet Dr. they
did not see
revealed in a form palpable to the senses. literally canoe. G. Australia. Thus the chestnut tree is the medium of the God of thunder. i. cold. vehicle. p. xli. or " merely " animists ? Since they actually have. They also have
a subterranean Tartarus (Pueliko) of mire. or
the
native owl. and Ancestor-Gods. 2nd ed. or medium (like
in
Vaa or Vaka of the Polynesians. fish. Eng. A. Meyer doubtless misunderstood the speculative process indicated by Mr. cited by Rev. Being either adaptations of deceased
ancestors or fortuitous constructions which had these for models. polytheists they must be admitted to be. mere demigods. and so on.
Even the very
spirit of
apriorism might have saved Ihne from
of
his preposterous account
the matter. 3 History of Borne. Adelaide. but in the form of Are the Ponapeans. a Rain-God. as distinguished from a War-God. by definition. 1871. and at last transformed themselves into different kinds of animals and stones "(Rev. These they style their Tan-iuaar. and the Lukot. Taplin."
republic. a place of perpetual feasting amongst lovely sights and sweet odours. one of the local genii of
the east coast. Christian in the theology of the Ponapeans. or both. they cannot have been "abstractions". one holding a glittering sword. guarded by two grim female forms (Lichar and Licher). and with which they are identified."
—
Concerning the Gods" or " daimons " thus particularized. Jevons conceives the Romans to have been immediately before the advent of Greek culture? Are they polydaimonists or polytheists. or tree which they are supposed to reside.—
82
All these
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
Ani are honoured under the guise of some special bird. The Narrinyeri. ed. Meyer.

1870. Jevons Eoman polytheism at least begins with the advent of Greek Gods. Fiji and tlie Fijians. 61. pervading spiritual world to influence human life. p. Afterwards. they did not join in marriage They did not live together like the Greek gods in Olympus. the old views and ideas still remained in the hearts of the people. T. who " in time of peace was a doctor". Williams. 188. when the Romans had learnt from the Etruscans to represent the gods as men after the Greek fashion. they had no intercourse with mortals.THE SEPAEATIST FALLACY
human
without
83
sympathies. 343) and among the mHlVv. though anyone interested in comparative hierology might then have pointed out to him the nugatoriness of his inference from the facts that a spear or a rough stone served the Eoman as a Godsymbol a consecrated space or a sacrificial hearth as a temple or altar." Thus. For the inspiration of prophecy was substituted the dry formal science of augury. which aims at nothing but the discovery of the simple assent or dissent of the gods. ed. 1884.
it. The gods transplanted from Greece took no root in the minds
. has gods. Jevons. no oracle uttered a divine revelation by the mouth of inspired prophets. " Roman religion. Cp. p. For Ihne there is to be urged the excuse that before he wrote (1871) the accumulations of modern anthropology had hardly been begun. 1892. Saynoa a Hundred Years Ago. p. 209)— of setting up a spear over a grave. and no anthropologist would dispute that the
finally negates the thesis of Dr.
:
1
_
in
Turner. to merge into the godhead of the universe. human forms.
'
. by the divisive courses of arbitrary definition and a priori thinking. like a wave in the ocean. which gave no hint.
*
•
.
of the
Roman people. Doubtless the origin of the symbol Samoa and Rome was the usage— noted in New Caledonia (id. or beget children. Rome knew no religious images. a sacrificial hearth. even a rough stone sufficed pictures or statues of the gods. For Ihne there was never any Eoman polytheism at all.'
1
''
Here Ihne
in support of
who cites Ihne For Dr. by means of the anxious observation and almost mechanical interpretation of a strictly defined set of phenomena. p. No genuine after the manner of men Roman legend tells of any race of nobles sprung from the gods. inasmuch as the imported Gods took no root.
. The Ainu of Japan. like the unfeeling elements
of nature and before the eyes of man had caught their form. as a sign of divine sympathy in the affairs of men. they retired from sight and contact. without human They emerged from the all-surrounding and allvirtues or weaknesses. The latter phenomena belong to countless cults in which Gods are unquestionably conceived as quasi-human a spear was the sacred symbol in Samoa of the war-God Tu. no warning. we once more reach mere nihilism and verbal vacuity. " Such an unimaginative conception of the Deity could not create ideal A simple spear. it is said.
. therefore. but no mythology. a consecrated space. as a symbol For 170 years. without human feelings and impulses. no advice. as a temple or altar. though not before. Though the divine forms were conceived as male or female. and the heart had drawn near to them. To them the gods were only mysterious spiritual beings. tchelor.

He
blankly supposes a world of superstitious
grown up without any of the psychosis of superAs seen by him. The conception is.290. 101. Major A.84
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
all
Samoans ascribed
manner
of
human
vices. Eng. 72. in short. ch. vii. 1827. x. p. Turner. or plant) in form and character. Sir A. W.
Mommsen. The Tshi-Speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast. 20. 214. Pioneering in Formosa. and Tlie Ewe-Speaking Peoples.ix. Roman religion is a monkey on a stick. Handbook of Egyptian Religion. 4 Cp. 234. 1876. as well as
of
among those
4
of Greece. 1860. ed. Jevonu. aspects. W. a people
in close culture-contact with the Greeks. 1898. what had the Roman people done on their own
it
known branch of the human race that is open found to conceive of its Gods as human (or animal. i. sect. 1860. Gill. what right can
tr. pp. on what possible pretext can we conclude that the peasantry of ancient Italy were without such notions? And if we find among the priests of Polynesian cannibals. the practice
speaking in the
1
name
of
the Gods. tr.
But without anthropological
anyone with the
the simple impossibility of
lore at
slightest turn for
all. and of
account
?
If
every
is
to examination
primitives everywhere. Myths and Songs from the South Pacific. 1884. A. 1891.
we have
to
2 *
Erman. i. Samoa. Could he have delivered himself from the presuppositions set up
of
by a study
Roman
religious survivals considered solely in contrast
2
with those of Greece. Glyn Leonard. If be true that the Greek Gods never took root in the minds of the Roman people. ch. pp. Tonga Islands. Der Mensch. following Dr. Mariner. Der Mensch in der Geschichte. 1887. virtues.
practices to have
stition.
lime's seems to tell of problem in hand which no criticism could instruct. i. psychology might have realized
the
"mechanical"
religion
verbally
constructed by Ihne.. 35. vol. ch. 128 *><?. ii. 1870.
Roman
limitation in the religious
was developed
3
from
Roman
beginnings on lines given by the Etruscans.
A
spear was also a symbol of Horos. 189 sq. Bastian. Eng. Tlie Lower Niger and its Tribes.
life. ch. Williams. p. 1908.
and abundantly given
to
the personification of their Gods. 79 8Q. T. p. Fiji and the Fijians.
But such an interpretation as an attitude of mind upon the particular
Proceeding to construct rationally for ourselves. Ellis.
and
1
proclivities to their Gods. Ellis. pronounces that "The
130. 1906. how can we rationally suppose that the Romans wholly failed to do so ? If every other barbaric race is found conceiving of its Gods and Goddesses as joining in marriage and begetting children.
again.
History of Pome. Pickering. i. he might
"dry formal science
expression of
From Preller and have learned that what he terms the augury. B. we first ask. one might have supposed. ed. 1890. ii. Ihne might have learned from Bastian enough
concerning primitive personifications to have withheld him from his
assertions as to the
Roman
of
Mommsen. Polynesian Researches..
iii. xiv. a Hundred Years Ago.
.
Preller. one of the commonest phases of savage religion." instead of being a permanent
conception of deity. 37. Yet Professor Granger. 18. p.

But his difficulty will not end there. beyond conveying from Chantepie de la Saussaye the implication that men became
what he
theists only
when they made
statues of their Gods. they were surely common in ancient India but what ideal pictures or statues were evoked by them ?
.
1
Romische Mythologie.
asks. and modern These and Zulus. imaged by a young bull. underwent evolution from crude beginnings. Will it be contended that the Gods grew into Godhood pari passu with the improvement in art and that the presence of a few good
from a Nature-God
. to believe that the Italic races were devoid of a predilection and a faculty which are found alike among ancient Finns and Teutons and Celts.
Gold Coast have priesthoods claiming constant Gods and what are their images worth ? It ought not to be necessary to point out that ideal pictures and statues were never forthcoming anywhere save after a long artistic evolution and that the archaic statuary of the Greeks is as crude as that of any other race at the same culture stage.
profound thought that the personality of man may be the vehicle of the will of a divine being was first brought to Rome by the systems. into a God " proper " is quite impossible to trace and perhaps Dr.
2
See Teuffel and Schwabe. half philosophical. 4. Greek art. After such a wholly inconclusive series of judgments on fairly simple issues. Australian blackfellows. half theological. Jevons will be tempted to say that in that case there was no evolution to specify. A late Roman statue is more " ideal " than an archaic Greek one.
p. conceding the contrary."
The peoples
of the
intercourse with the
. It is significant that he makes no
attempt to indicate.
Where was
The
there ever a people entirely
without songs and sagas
2
?*
traceable facts as to ancient Latin
carmina in general' forbid us.THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
Italy
?
85
suppose that nothing of the kind ever happened in ancient Latin
The
thesis that " such
an unimaginative conception
illicit
of the
could not create ideal pictures or statues of the
resort to apriorism after
Gods
" is a
Deity vain
an
induction. as apart from the case of the Romans. Maoris. and Redskins. 252). of
Roman
Literature.
98-101.itr.
i.
. the point of evolution of
Yahweh
Rain or Fire or Thunder. which came into favour at the end of the Republic" (The Worship of the Romans. like other things. and beautiful
statues at that. when calls animism passed into polytheism.
If there
were anywhere
imaginative conceptions of deity. it is impossible to put any faith in lime's further conAs Preller clusion that "the Romans never had heroic songs.
On
of
that view. 1895. once more. Jevons's negative theory of Roman religion. 1900.
p.
. Eng.
. Hist. and the outcome is only in parts sounder than the inspiration. other ill-considered negations went to the eduction of Dr.

with their arbitrary separation between polydaimonism and polytheism. then the historic Greeks and Hindus were not polytheists. in short. firstly. Jevons's formula.
. passim. as varying under special determinants.
1
Christendom there
is
See Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Belujion. on the
Roman. by J. then. principles of psychology obviously negate the theorem of a stage in which a whole people conceive of the whole multitude of their numina as collectively "inferior" or "mere daimons " without any
"superior" or " more-than-daimon " from whom to distinguish them. the distinction between higher and lower must have been present in germ as soon as any explicit distinctions were made at all. The term " pandaimonism. the very basal universal psychological principles. pp." terms. in rehabilitating idolatry in
culture-history by calling the sculptor the
God-maker ? The fact that different Latin districts and villages had each their Mars and Jupiter is rather a proof of personification than a suggesIn parts
of Catholic
tion to the contrary. and their literary presuppositions as to an abnormal psychism in Romans. point. might as well be applied to their way of thinking as to the
if
The conception. and 2 In this way at least a few numina must have permanent thereafter.
overtopped the rest in
Roman
religion before the historic period. like every other. 2 Professor Granger. we turn with renewed confidence From its standto the comparative method of universal science.
And
such a state of belief be not polytheism. And as it is further inconceivable that any primitive people ever explicitly posited absolute equality among their numina. 1910.86
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
a
statues in his
when
of
Roman
gation reveals
deme made the Greek peasant a polytheist proper patrician was but a polydaimonist ? Modern investipractical polydaimonism among the Greek peasantry
1
to
Did their ancestors. relapse from polytheism polydaimonism when Christianity drove out statuary ? And were Theophrastus and Plutarch wholly in error in virtually ascribing polydaimonism to those Greek-speakers whom they represented in their own day as superstitious types ?
our
day. of a pandaimonism or polydaimonism which excludes theism or polytheism is a mere fallacy of Gods.
lines
of
Chantepie de
la
Saussaye. C. certainly. Lawson. Roman religion is to be understood. but as exemplifying And.
own
Finding ourselves thus landed in a scientific impasse by our academic guides. in the act of giving a general assent to Dr. If the numina of primitives are not to be called why call the primitives themselves men ? Are we to end." again. 104-5). admits that Jupiter and Mars stand out from the mass (Worship of the Romans.

the retention of which by the Greeks is counted to them for proof of superior imaginativeness?
as personalities. 50-51.
Worship of th? Bomans. can we be really more certain that for the Roman the septemtriones were " seven ploughing oxen who continued round the pole 6 that agriculture which was his business on the plains of Latium. the answer
into " superior
is
2
that the
Samoans graded
their
Gods
by
and
inferior."
by imaginary foes.
74.
Turner. By the admission Granger. and gave
him and many others
families. should
them
have totally or generally failed to think of If they so failed." says Professor Granger. 116. 81. If higher. Compare Renouf (as cited. p.
p.THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
precisely such a reduplication of the Virgin
87
Mary.
On
view mythology
p."
recognized a Creator-God." than that for the English of two centuries ago the constellation in question was a waggon.
p
. they were either higher or lower in psychic capacity than the hosts of savages made known to us by contemporary anthropology. the epithets "father" and
3
"mother"
with a
are applied alike to the higher and the lower deities of
Rome
frequency seen in no other ancient mythology.
gance to put the
how came they to be so ? Is it Romans of 200 or 300
"beset on
all
B. having made that admission. however vaguely they may have thought of some of their
incligitamenta. pp. or that for the people of the United States
sides
to-day
his
1
it is
a kitchen utensil
7
?
"For
evidence."
Indeed we are not." lower in psychic evolution than the present natives of the Gold Coast ? Is " admit at once that the Roman was not so benighted it not saner to 5 intellectually as we might think"? And.C.
As
pointed out by Preller. And if it be urged that this means to be counted by the dozen. Samoa.) on the significance of the Egyptian word nutar. pp.
"we
that
2
are confined to
language.
f<
3 Bomische MytTiologie.
not a gratuitous extravawho " lived and died
4
in a spirit world.
If lower. When Preller goes on to dwell upon the peculiarly abstract" signification of nimien he falls into the old snare.
Secondly. The Worship of the Bomans. 4 Granger.
. ib.
5
Id.
6
id. 31. 93 sa. No examples of the word can prove that it had any more abstract significance to start with than Deus.
may
is
be
left to
the deliberate rejection of
who
reflect
upon
it. when and how did they transcend the general propensity. p.
7
id.
And
if
that
is
to be the test.
They were thus
polytheists
every test save that of sculpture. the same proposition holds of many if not of Professor 1 Among the Samoans War-Gods were most of the Gods of Greece.
polydaimonism.. 75. it is inconceivable a priori and a posteriori that the Romans.
why
complicate the problem by obtruding the others ? As for the proposition that the Romans conceived their deities
as male and female yet never thought of
it
them
all
as begetting children. 105.

it will make If any ancient short work of other mythologies than the Roman. 86. merely insofar as they were State functions. 1906. against the implication of Professor fcr.
the last
their fathers'
Greeks the crudities of Like the Yahwistic Hebrews. 129. indicate that early Roman mythology was and the largely on the lines of the grossest mythology of Greece proud Roman aristocracy.
who
accept that
principle to apply
Such Romans. however.
dignity that beseemed Roman things.
standing
application. academic theory is to be adhered to. though for a different reason.
1
is
based upon the fact that " our
common
The
nature manifests
present argument
itself in like
is
it
ways under
like
circumstances.
commits us to the inference that the had a native folklore in which tales were
is
told of the Gods."
simply an invitation to those
consistently.—
88
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
" a disease of
would be
language" with a vengeance!
Where
his
language gives indications such as in other languages we know to be illusory. But
'
—
See the general argument of Professor Ettore Pais.
.
like other races. alike because they disbelieved them and because the
to drag forth before the subject
2
men
faith. p. the people can be supposed to have Egyptians must be so thought of.
42
. told stories about their Gods.
ii. witness
myths lacked the
If the negative
the expert
"It
:
is
in this period of [progressively creative]
of the religion of
.
32
. of their religious antecedents. the only reasonable course is to conceive the Roman's mental processes broadly in terms of those of other races at a The comparative method. these are expressions we meet with at every turn. 88) that the early Romans did not conceive their Gods under human form till they began so to represent them in statues. they turned their backs on their myths.
Eng.
Be natura deorum.
De
divinatione. posing as masters of the world.
i. 95.
Granger's
own
admission. pp. Yet by the documentary test ancient Egypt proves to be as "unimaginative" as Rome. grimly retailed by Christian Fathers bent on discrediting Paganism. 67.
2
Id. by Professor similar culture stage.
iii. would be
this primitive lore
how
dropped by the
literate generations
. I must demur.
There
not the slightest difficulty in under-
was for the most part silently which read Greek. easily led because of the Evemeristic movement were the more 3 Preserving the old cults which reached them through Ennius.
50. Ancient Legends of Roman Italy. so To this they far as literature went.
know anything
allusions
to
Gods who
i
mythology that we first Egypt even our earliest texts are full of The night wherein The 'The day wherein the myth.
. thirdly. Pais (pp.
8
Cicero. Actually actually surviving legends concerning Acca Larentia and Flora recorded usages. they lent themselves to a wholesale dismissal.

M
.Pp." then neither had the Egyptians and " The most this indeed was actually affirmed a generation ago. it is still denied by yet
one
The
tale of Osiris is as old as
another school to the Romans." He has indeed somewhat minimised the mass that survives. there is enough mythmatter preserved from Rome to prove the abundance of Roman mythology. Erinan goes on to speak of " the great mass of stories of the gods with which Egypt at one time must have been flooded. 1907. p. "is altogether an erroneous
2
Egyptian civilization itself. We are. 105. 4 3 Granger. 181. as cited. Jevons denies that the Romans had nature-myths.
Church of God on earth.
. more reasonably may we say that there was a popular mythomuch logical lore among the Romans which the Roman literate class after Ennius would not consider worth reducing to writing. we understand little of them. Hibbert Lectures. goes far to show that they had nothing else. p. that however many gods the Egyptians might have. sq. I3. Eng. The very school which talks of "mere numina. " held by the best scholars common opinion. passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth.
entirely lost. when nothing like cultured scepticism
and when all God-stories would possess religious value.
influences." he
adds. they had no mythology properly speaking. 2nd ed. for the stories If any literature relating to to which they refer are not told in the texts. 25. in a learned and interesting When he chapter. the belief in such existences attained a strength which now we
can scarcely
like the " true
While Dr.'
. obliged to draw our knowledge of this important " x side of Egyptian religion from very doubtful sources
logical writings never existed
If this can be said of a people whose religious literature goes back to primitive times. Cp. only a few years ago was. therefore." avows that " when every event which passed human comprehension was referred to the action of some particular spirit.
these stories ever existed. as cited. and by another to the Egyptians. and even this was imagined to have been brought into shape through Hellenic
existed. Renout." wrote Renouf in 1879.
This
opinion. 101-5.. pp.
it is
.THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
89
numerous as these allusions are. Professor Granger. If the Romans had " no mythology. 2 Hibbert Lectures.
it
It is possible that actual
mytho-
would be quite unnecessary to write down tales familiar to all. Handbook of Egyptian Religion. leaving the naturalist asking whether." mythology is restricted to the one set of myths that happen to appeal to the theorist ? Even as there is enough myth-matter preserved from Egypt to prove the abundance of Egyptian mythology.3
1 Erman." Just as mythology was thus denied by one set of separatists to the Semites." "mere nature-forces. tr. The only myth they were supposed to possess was that about Osiris. nonetheless thinks fit to explain that " the mighty God and most
realize.

he insists to begin with. and (2) how the separatist gets the Egyptian statues of God-figures were not beautiful. Without noting Mr.
Mr. that writer's reconstructions " wild. or Yah well. to the
identification of
where the Polynesians come in. not figures of " Gods "?
(l)
over the fact that
When
myth. namely. 102. Mr. Allen charges upon mythologists in general an erroneous identification of the two. 104. individual? Was Artemis? " Very little is known as to their origin. or Bel ? The separatist reasoning about polydaimonism versus polytheism
Egyptians in respect of their facile numbers of Gods and Goddesses.
It
it
seems to
offer
the sole harbour for
yet to be done
scientific thought." he is applying a method which would give the same result with Pan." are once more told that the Egyptians were polytheists in virtue of their grouping of the Gods in families." it will simply find itself discarded in this connection.
this chaos of pseudo-classification
can be solved. that
much has
before the
phenomena
are thoroughly colligated. Grant Allen's Theorem."" Then was Pan.
But
if
English academic scholarship
cannot otherwise counter the newer scientific Italian scholarship of the school of Pais than by calling.
3
Idt ibi
.
the latest attempt of
The foregoing surveys already tend to prove the inexpediency of all to break up the phenomena of religion into
unconnected species the attempt made. Devils and Cyclopes and Centaurs. who avoided towns. They have no more to do with religion. again.
may
be. are not Gods " or anything like one. than the unicorn of the royal
1
—
Id.90
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
1 holy shepherd Silvanus " was after all "simply a wood fairy.
2
Id. as some do. and proceeds in his turn to pass one more verdict of divorce. " Like our English fairies." the Roman " have no individuality
They are restricted to the forest and the adjoining country. and their recogAnd if we nition of them all under the conception of "powers.
§ 4. as so many systems of inconsistent conservatism have been
discarded in the past. we have to ask once more
will equally apply. by the late Mr. Grant Allen in the opening chapter of his able and suggestive work on The Evolution of the Idea of God (1897). p." 8 Can the Professor tell us the origin of Woden. and hence. and that
many
of
them
are
still
misunderstood. Lang's similar undertaking to sunder mythology from religion. properly so called. indeed. by his tests. we
may
reconsider our evolutionary and monistic conception of religion and
For the present. p.

is
as
such. properly so called. in brief.e.
{i." railway guard's decision that " dogs is dogs and cats is dogs." 3
This differentiation. Allen's
fuller definition of
a course worthy of mythology itself. is
91
as I understand
to do with British Christianity. desired to have nothing to do with any other. Pagan.
whom
Mr. ceremonial. is in each country or race closely related with religion under certain aspects . becomes extravagantly so in view of religion..
A God. sure.
to be setting aside.
p. sacrifices.
and so on. Lang. ritual. and the stories told about the Gods or God are much mixed up with the cult itself in the minds of worshippers but they are no proper part of
.
—
religion. they must be all disallowed. let us proceed to consider the
essentials of religion.
I also
is
essentially practical:
[as
if
theology or mythology. therefore. 438. 22-23. to account for or explain the one is by no means equivalent to
: :
accounting for and explaining the other.
2
i
Evolution of the Idea of God.worship is the protoplasm of religion. theology This theory. but a
modern and philosophical
tortoise is a hinseck. the abstract theory of spiritual existences. And what is very little essential indeed is the philosophical element.THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
arms has
it.
strictly
so
called
Religion. savage and civilized— is the ethical element.
. theology.
Id. as such."
The reason for this preliminary distinction turns out to be that Mr. Christian."
religion but with
2
The
decision to connect theology not with
is
it
mythology
Arbitrary on any definition. is in part in
almost complete
agreement with that of Mr. both past and present. that " folk-lore is the protoplasm of mythology.
8
Id.
Mr. to be or mythology. Buddhist.
" What is not at all essential to religion in its wider aspect taking the world round.
it
will be observed. 21. Allen. and as the vast mass of
a supernatural heing to
1
mankind has always understood Bearing be revered and worshipped
this
distinction carefully in mind." but they strictly have very different ideas as to what constitutes religion
so-called. that " corpse. Mohammedan.
the word. which is that religion properly
so called consists in observances." and is. Allen supposed himself
Both writers decide that the connection between
'
mythology and religion is " accidental " or " adventitious. pp.
essentially theoretical
theory and
practice were opposite or unconnected]
believe
that the two
roots
the theory and the practice] have to a large extent distinct origins and that the union between them is in great part adventitious and that. prayer. p. and of its more
Which recalls the offshoot."
It begins to be pretty clear that these individual decisions
as to
what
religion is to be are a
in
and that
the
name
of
science
mere element of gratuitous confusion. having in view one particular line of descent for the GodHis position idea.

Allen. Grant Allen scouts all alike. In the name of the intellectual commonwealth. That is not pretended. Lang in effect bears them out Julius Muller
. and as such part and Is Old Harry parcel of the religion of the believer in the latter ? "nothing like" the Pan from whom he came? And above all. that stories about the God are in hundreds of cases efforts to explain the
. always ethical. but insist that
all
.
not religion at
theologians protest that theology and mythology have nothing
to
do with each other.
. It is neither here nor there to say that in explaining one we do not explain the other. and that theology is just religion systematized and explained Mr. and declares religion to be simply ritual (which Mr.
early ritual. Allen's dictum that " the Origin of Tales has nothing at all to do with the Origin of Worship" is a mere violence of dogma.
protests that religion
is
of the very essence of
.
. Scientifically speaking. without letting
be affected by their thought and practice as story-tellers and makers
of folk-lore ?
1
P. Allen
calls religion is
" Religious" persons protest that religion and theology are different
things. how
could primitive
as to
men
so keep their
minds
in watertight
make up
their religion rigidly in terms of their thought
compartments and
it
practice as corpse-worshippers and corpse-eaters. But it is very easy to show.92
THE PROGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
what Mr.
myth
— as
if
there
Ottfried Muller finds religion in the were no historical myths higher mythology Mr. both of which he yet sees in myths and Sack decides that it begins only after much of mythology and ritual is left behind. These attributes are in themselves phases of human tendency which make and make-for religion.
. 29. while in other cases particularities of ritual originate in
Mr. how could a ritual of prayer for wind or rain ever originate save in an idea about a God's character and function ? Is not the very idea of a God as a protecting Father (insisted on by Mr. Allen as the typical God-idea) a
ideas about the God. we have a right to resist these illicit appropriations on the common domain of terminology.
1
matter of telling a story about the God ? Is not the idea of a Bad Spirit correlative with that of a Good Spirit. Religion in the mass has always been mythological. as against Mr. the term religion covers all the phenomena under notice. Lang declares to be mythological and " irrational ") while Max Muller finds it now in cosmic emotion and now in cosmic apperception. always ritualistic. To come to the point. always connected with what cosmic emotion or apperception there was.
. always theological.

Tiele. that they are separated. in Voices of against Dr.
We
return perforce.
1
an immature anthropology is found to join with the supernaturalist school in drawing lines of arbitrary severance between the co-operating elements in all historic religion. from which all faith in the myth as such has vanished. 1836. the elements of ignorance and fear tend to have the effect of maintaining an ancient practice or formula or
myth
. to the anthropological position that
primitive
man
fused instead of discriminating the states of
mind
which set up his myths and his cosmosophy." Such a separation is visibly a process of prejudice. Every primitive practice connotes certain ideas. but who nevertheless
scrutinize religions in general in the spirit of scientific observation. Ideas about corpses and ancestors are demonstrably part of folk-lore."
set
with a very different order of ideas. In the words of the supernaturalist Julius Miiller here true to the evidence which his sympathies obscured for him when he came to the concrete problem over his own creed the historical form and ideal are inseparable.THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
93
The division drawn by Mr. Allen is finally fantastic. trans.
By
. under the two sundering titles of
tlie
1 Review of Strauss in Studien und Kritiken.
While one
of the
persists in classifying all creeds
most eminent historians of religion.
tion in the matter
is
The one
force or
law
of differentia-
this
:
that whereas the whole of the ideas and
the practices would in the earlier and ruder eras of savagery tend to be coherent or congruous. p.
after the ideas turning
on
it
have been greatly modified by
changes of life and culture-conditions.
means
denying their perpetual and inevitable inter-reactions. insist that the definition of religion shall be faithful to historic fact. and it cannot hold for those who follow scientific methods. 16.
Church
. then. either material or social or both while on the other hand a practice or myth or doctrine that stands for one order of ideas with one set of minds may be imposed
on another
"religion. 1845. and purport of every myth or primitive usage penetrate each other and it is only by the abstraction of a later age. Strauss. Eng. Dr. his ethic and his ritual. and the ever-advancing differentiation of some of them but let us not plunge anthropology in darkness by
law and ethic originally
necessity. and every primitive
idea connotes certain practice.
—
—
'
. But all alike are Not only are mythology and theology and ritual and
"
all
connected": they are so of psychological let us for purposes of elucidation trace their several developments. on the other hand men who still hold by the concept of revelation. Nor is it merely on grounds of systematic Naturalism that If on the one hand separatist courses are thus to be disallowed.

recognize the essential continuity and coherence of
all
the phenomena. not
missionary
bent like Mr. I cannot but think.—
94
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
1
"Nature Religions" and "Ethical Religions"
nothing ethical in the
first.
. p. and myths which have usually been regarded. and mixed with principles of morality." Here we have yet another conception of "the essence of religion. ch. till within a comparatively recent period. persecuting. and again. by both travellers and students. 1. superstitions. 327. ed cited. 56-58. Chantepie de la Saussaye. Written before the Age of Reason. Any man is free thus to claim a customary name for an uncustomary creed. ii.
When
a
man of moral and reformative genius
country is the world. James Macdonald. Conway's ed. 5. Lang on making out the primordiality of " high " conceptions among men. Eng. as worthless and degrading. p. dated November 21. part i. Religion and Myth. 1778.
is
the only scientific attitude towards the
declares
:
phenomena. Rights of Man. Under the term religion we must include not only beliefs in unseen spiritual agencies. nor yet upon rebutting the special claims of
current creeds. pp.
the unseen
and the
earliest
'
'
This. tr. No.
Humanity" may be turned to many valuable ends. Rev. on the score that honoured names may fitly
set
. Id.
It
is
a
Scottish
clergyman
:
of
experience. and I know of none that instructs him to be bad. Manual of the Science of Religion. ii.
1
2 8
4
5 6
Cp.
— as
if
there were
or natural in the second
— others. They could not have made proselytes at first by professing anything that was vicious. Rights of Man." 2
" Religion in the widest sense
. cruel. 504. 5 or immoral". 1891. " Every religion is good that teaches man 6 to be good.
who
puts the case thus
may be defined as a man's attitude towards forms of human thought furnish the clue from which must be traced the development of those great systems of religion that have at different periods been professed by the majority of men. capable of
elucidating the primitive
religions
he has
studied at
first
hand. 1893 (Nutt)."'^ he indeed gives a profoundly necessary stimulus to the moral sense of men hypnotized by tradition and ceremonial and his conception of
. but numerous customs. 472. The phrase is used by Paine in his series The Crisis. part ii. Thomas Paine. and my religion is to do good. 7.
"my
a "Religion of
whether or
stition. though he did lay it down that " All religions are in their nature kind and benign." Paine had unhappy cause to unlearn his optimism though he never flinched in his insistence that what he taught was true religion as against false. of Works. not we reckon among them a cult which in the name of
4
Positivism imitates anxiously some of the institutions of super-
But to let such adaptation of old terms to new moral ends up a hallucination as to the historic reality of religion throughout human evolution would be to effect a confusion which the original adaptor would be the first to repudiate.

but I do not find in his interesting and useful volumes any instance of a "religion" which comes under this definition. were it not for the line taken by
of acquired or inherited
—
ascertain.
!
.
And
this. 8). and the doings of these. J. are for calling all high thought and feeling He who has art and science according to that saying of Goethe let us use words as mankind generally use them " (Literature and
'
:
Dogma." chased out of In fine. the come of the perception
God-idea being common to all mythologies and all religions. though
are framed under analogous conditions of
bound up with myth alike 2 and their cosmosophy or quasi-science." In England. all historic religions are
in their ethic
prejudice what.
not be considered by a prudent English mythologist. Allen). Gould.
it is
generically extensible to all the
credences and practices by which
men
ever supposed themselves
the matter
is
what they conceived as Gods. the God-idea = mythology with a fork. 21). 5th
human
a Mr.' But
people.THE SEPARATIST FALLACY
95
be given to the systems which best deserve honour. that while not all myths are properly to be described
aware
of
all
as religious. indeed. the
it
Hebrew descent).
1
Compare Arnold: "Some
. on the other hand (apart from the case of Mr. " true guise of religion. And we are led and driven to the solution that this attempt to sunder in the name of God what man primordially joined is an expression of some form
speculative error.
has also
by the name of religion religion. in his Concise History of Religion (i. I understand. the only applicable principle is that of the careful comprehension of all facts and for that purpose we must either reject the word "religion" altogether. must be at least nominally kept out of the discussion.
.
ed. labelled" Absolute Religion. who in his simple way classified religions so as to leave Christianity in an order by itself. since if we avow this common ground we shall be driven to consider whether
is
the Christian religion
not consanguineous with the rest in
myth
must
and
ritual as well as in the other thing.
And
that
is
never to be counted on. of
attitude in question might be supposed to
that. extra-human The sum of intangible lives. F.
or recognize the plain fact that
in touch with or personalities. as having no accepted significance. returns at every window. But when we are reducing to scientific form the facts of the mental history of
mankind. gives as an alternative definition of religion "the authority of a moral law" which may be "viewed as a purely creation". even if he be at the point of view from which the problem can be properly seen. of course. p.
Goldziher and Sack (both. it is not necessary to In Germany it may be either the ordinary religious heredity or an outcome of the influence of Hegel.

about the 'mythical'
parts of the Old Testament. Whence this ordercorrect impression. Lang.
ou "Mythology and the Bible.
in the eighteenth century to the earlier
suggestions that the Bible contained mythology like the sacred books
of other religions
and
it is
significant of the retardative
power
of
orthodox habit among us that it is necessary to-day to examine and answer such reasoning on the part of a professed mythologist. have been carried on pretty much in
AGAIN our
of
.
does not convey quite a
Whatever else the stories in Genesis and Exodus may they have moral and intellectual qualities. over a hundred years ago. is exactly what we wish to know.
96
." For him. Mr. it may even be said. orderliness.
i. sobriety. this
is
very
much
the kind of
opposition that
was made
. who more or less avowedly resists the application of anthropology to the problem of Christian origins. including the argument of Strauss. vol.
1
Art. sobriety.
THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
§
1. to say nothing of
—
the Attic tragedians.
On
Hebrew mythology
. considered separately from the New Testament. the mythological discussions of the first half of the century. perhaps needlessly
and again.
one occasion he has actually glanced at the question of and even on that.
:
"One has a kind
of traditional objection to talking It is a
. he stands very much where Eichhorn did. and.—
Chapter
IV. and what
tell
M.
Hebrew Mythology. In the first place."
in Neiv Beview. so much confined Hebrew literature.
1889.
liness. 279.
people.
first illustration of the difficulty is furnished by the case Mr. does not
us. why they are so solitary."
1
Save
for the
absence of fanaticism. Renan.
to the
ancient
and poetry arise. p. seriousness.
way
of speaking
it
which must offend
many
be.
. a poetic value. Lang here implicitly unsays what he has so often said in other connections that in Homer. He does not want to discuss these things he dislikes and disparages the view that the Judaic and Christian religions are products of normal evolution the evolution principle being in his hands valid only for the treatment of social origins and " absurd and offensive anecdotes. perhaps. there are qualities of seriousness. which are lacking in the mass of wild queries and fancies usually called myths. It is apropos of Renan's Histoirc du Peuple cV Israel that he writes
vain. orderliness.

that Homer rejected or ignored " absurd and offensive anecdotes" known to be current in his time. and that it In the terms of the case it is impossible that the Greek epics could have held their ground if they had not exhibited seriousness. and that Pindar avowedly did the same and if.
it
97
even be said.
in the details of the
the massacre of the
Sichemites by Simeon and Levi.
.
of the crime of
Lamech
." all imposed He has expressly told us. Lang to the Pentateuch. " and. .
two
versions of the tale of the ark
in the anecdotes
about the exposure of
in the narrative of the
Noah and the proceedings of Lot's daughters command to Abraham to sacrifice his son
with Pharaoh and Abimelech same ^pleasing anecdote in the case
in the story of his duplicated dealings in the further duplication of the
of Isaac
.
in the ascription to
man
of the conception of
ever occurred
in the
. if the " absurd and offensive " elements in
the best Greek poetry deprive
it
of title to the qualities ascribed
by
Mr. he
may
upon mythical matter. sobriety.
of the
flood
. a poetic value. the distinction that Mr.
THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
sobriety. In the second place.
all
over men's appreciation
Testament.
in the theory
and the procedure
. there are assuredly absurd and offensive elements enough in that to destroy the credit that he so liberally
gives
it.
. Lang seeks to draw could hardly have been ventured on by anybody. either in the full understanding that his Gods never existed.
instructions to
connubial
father
life
Abraham about circumcision in of Abraham and Jacob
.
Sarah at the age of ninety bore a husband. or on the assumption that they were " demons ". all of whom use the same God-names. after all he has said of Homer. and the ethical
. the rest of
it
Homer has maintained dominion through the Christian period.
will not
now
credit the Iliad with the qualities aforesaid. and the duplication of the laughing episode in Yahweh's
in the allegation that
child to her centenarian
.
in the talk of
Yahweh with Cain
death before death had in the cryptogram
. in Yahweh's wrangle with her beforehand.
.
with selected works of the tragedians and the philosophers. orderliness.
comment
of their
in his allocution to his sons
—
if
in this string of alternately
all in
absurd and coarse anecdotes and of obscure rhapsodies.
the
H
. while the Hebrew Bible has held its place on the express declaration that it was the one divinelyus must do
as against him. as did others before him. Lang sees nothing but sobriety and orderliness in
.
If
Mr. in a and if they had been bound up in one volume relatively high degree
inspired book in the world before the
New
contained nothing but the purest truth..
the two irreconcilable accounts of the creation in the positing of in the story of the serpent and the fall light before there was sun
.

and we are thus dealing with a Hebrew adaptation on all
fours with the oft-cited practice of Pindar. p. des Alt. Anm. in his Pantheon (1713). ii. Mythology among the Hebretvs. mutilated his father
Cham. This is not the occasion to attempt even to outline the main features
1 Goldziher. who seems to dispute the point. for instance.
And
with
the
Hebrew
and
compilation. Egyptian. sufficiently answers Mr. Meyer (Gesch.. argued that the Greeks had taken their story from Genesis. and of Homer. Lang's question as to how whatever comparative order and sobriety we find in the Pentateuch came to be there. But cp. Mr.. 103. representing the effects of Assyrian. The difference is that whereas Pindar made a clean breast of the whole matter. 209).
. and Persian culture on the previously semi-civilized Jews the systematic effort to gloss polytheism into the form of monotheism. the Hebrew redactors. These books represent a prolonged and repeated process of redaction. Lang lays special stress on the story of the mutilation of Uranus by Kronos as a sample of the element of savage survival in Greek myth. But if he had perused an easily accessible work on Hebrew mythology he would have learned that in the Eabbinical
crudities of primitive
It is obvious
—
literature there is preserved the tradition that
son. 70a. p. and to modify the
—
most glaring
barbarism. 2 Now the context makes it practically certain that this was the original form of the 3 story.
98
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
book of Genesis alone. and Homer simply set aside the unmanageable. Outlines.
culture.
" the black "
he had looked further into the matter he would have found that a slight vowel alteration of one
Noah
1
and
if
word in the present text would give that sense. Mr. 2 The old mythologist Andrew Tooke.
who refused to say that one of the blessed Gods was a mad glutton. misreading the word in question as they so easily might.
be
it
observed. Sanhedrim. And this is but one of a hundred inferrible improvements of the text by the later theologians. falsified the text. Babylonian.).
To
call
such a narrative sober
and orderly as a whole in comparison with either Hesiod or Homer is to throw all criticism into confusion.
represents
a
relatively late
literary state of
Hebrew
Even Eenan. that in the story of Jacob's wrestle with the "man" the antagonist was originally Yahweh the Yahweh who had familiar conversations with Cain and Abraham and Sarah. 131. who simply left the worst stories out. in their usual way. one can but say that it is
impossible to follow his distinctions.
anthropomorphism and pastoral from the context. 3 "The God who mutilates his father and eats his children is of genuinely NorthSemitic origin" (Tiele. citing tract. The solution may lie in an early iEgean derivation. Lang does not see exactly the characteristics of the " mass " of barbaric myth.
all his inconsistencies and laxities of method.

Goldziher and other recent mythologists. §§ 12. i.. xv.
but
it is
justifiable to say.
a solar deity can be established at least as satisfactorily as the solar
character of Moses. that a great
deal of the heterogeneous narrative of the Biblical books has long
been satisfactorily identified as normal primitive mythology as clearly so as other portions have been shown to be purposive sacerdotal fiction
—
—and that when
applied. 3 and as Moses' horns but one word.
4
1
.
To say nothing
the various
by Dr. Hosea viii. " horn" and "ray". 27. that the son of the mythical Miriam there was probably an ancient Palestinian Saviour. The Jewish books would naturally drop the
subject. it appears that Moses is at one point but an aspect of the same myth.
Horned One. Rev. 5. some of them noted long ago and since ignored. not in the Arabic original. Moloch was similarly imaged. The tradition as to Joshua occurs in the Persian version. As the babe Moses is set afloat in the basket of bulrushes. 13. p. 5 Strabo. rnarg. 396. §'9. That Joshua is a purely mythical personage was long ago decided by the historical criticism of the school of Colenso and Kuenen that he was originally
. ed. first. Dionysos is among other things the Zeus or Iao of Nysa or Sinai.
2
Exodus xxxiv. Keren.Sun-God.
If the religion of
Yahweh be compared
it
in its
those around
it. Judges viii. Jesus the son of Mary we are led to surmise that the elucidation of the
Joshua
is
—
—
Christ
myth
is
not yet complete. since 4 Yahweh was actually worshipped as a young bull.
3 Goldziher. being the
it
may
mountain. 4-6. dwelling there
in the
5
1 Chronicle of Tabari. Cp.
rational tests are
more rigorously and
as
more
vigilantly
much
that
still
passes
history will
probably be resolved into manipulated myth.
And when we note
myths that
that in Eastern tradition (which preserves a variety of
the Bible-makers for obvious
reasons suppressed or transformed)
1
that is to say. Kings xii.
if
not as that of Samson. Hosea viii. there are clear connections. one of the connecting links being the myth of 3 Moses. In the etymological explanation of the horns of Moses lies The Hebrew language has a possible clue to the horns of Dionysos. 179. Vers. 28. between the worship of Dionysos and the
myth
dealt with
worship of Yahweh. for
are certainly solar. 29."
elements of
reveals even in its highly sophisticated form
the plainest mythical kinships. 6 See hereinafter. Christ and Krishna.
the early conception of Dionysos as a bull.
instead of being isolated from
main aspects with them in thought as
of
an " ethical system. even as did Yahweh but for the rest he duplicates mainly with Moses. carried in the basket in the sacred procession.
be that there was verbal pressure behind In any case. the babe Dionysos is 6 Like Moses. 1.
THE STAND FOB THE BIBLE
of
99
Hebrew mythology
. Paris. 1867.

law on two tables of Jewish forgery. iv. Deut.
15. 36. Lang to fall back on a similar view at least If to the extent of deciding that the Mosaic myth is actual history. " the Lord" (Yahiveh) being named in the same sentence— clear traces
of the process of redaction. Inst. 16.
. At the annual celebration the priest put on this mask over his robes (even as Moses put on his veil in the presence of the people before and 6 after speaking with the Lord ). For the earlier Christian mythologist.
Preller.
however. and some writings relative to the rites were taken out.
Elijah. 321. as
did
Enoch and
There
are. and refs. 1st ed. Golden Bough.* like Moses. 22. read from. anyone with the facts of Comparative Mythology before him can If the story of rest in such a faith. 35. 4 Exodus iii.
6
8
Exodus xxxiv. 1126-7.
—
—
—
:
. the word has no
rites these
. i. " By Petroma " was the most sacred oath for the people of Pheneus and the stones bore a covering. in which Moses must needs have gone to heaven like Dionysos. and replaced.100
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
Dionysos strikes water from the ground with his rod . viii.
5
The statement in the Orphic Hymns that Dionysos wrote his stone— a datum founded on by Voltaire— is now abandoned as a late
Cp. the solution of such coincidences was simple the Pagan stories were of course perversions of the Hebrew history and our own contemporaries have the encouragement of Mr. 2nd
ed. In the Greek cult of Demeter much was made of the place Petroma. On the other hand. xxxiii. i. Euripides. Div. " two large stones fitting into one another.
and within a bush
5
Dionysos was frequently represented
in ancient art. And yet again it was told of the mythic Cretan king and lawgiver Minos a solar figure of which the traces go clear back to the early " Aegean " period that either once or many times he entered an ancient and holy cave to hold intercourse with his father Zeus. First it is the "angel of the Lord" who appears in the bush.
G
iech.
is
But the
story
that the grave of Moses could never be found
evidently a com-
promise between the Evemerism of the Yahwists and the early myth.
65. inside which was a mask of Kedarian Demeter. he is certainly past argument. and in fulfilment of the ancient rite 11 struck the earth with rods and summoned the Gods of the nether " world 7 another variant of the acts of Dionysos and Moses.
33. But the passage in Euripides points to the original of all forms of the myth.
—
1
3
Pausanias.
Myth. Cp.
7 Pausanias.
and
refs. 2 and in the " twofold rocks" of 3 Dionysos lies the probable myth-basis of the two stone tables on which Moses wrote the law on Sinai. then it is " God " (Elohim). he crosses the sea with his host.
119.
2
Diodorus Siculus. and 8 receive from him laws for the island of Crete. Frazer. Lactantius." At the annual celebration of the great
were detached. the giving of the law on Sinai be not a myth. it is
Yahweh who appears
to
Moses within a bush
4
. yet other parallels. Jon.
ii. Cp. 2-4.
iii.

edited by Frederic Harrison. Physical Beligion. Mr. Lang seems to perceive." for instance and he has never shown any great reluctance to dishearten or to ridicule those persons who. cited. are communicated by theophany to a tribal leader on a mountain top.
scholars as natural episodes of Eastern
like
life
.
A
set of
laws which.
. with or without similar
alleged to have been
. 284. some such movement of the general intelligence. so far as they are really ethical. Complaining of the vagueness of Eenan's
—
—
account of Hebrew religious origins. It is hardly necessary to point out that we are not dealing with a spirit of pure
humanitarianism or disinterested benevolence. and are seen to have been independently attained
myths of revelation. so long as comparative mythologists can write on the whole matter as does Mr. who probably discovered the principle of Monotheism 2 so long as Moses is believed by Positivists to have been a real leader who invented the Ten Commandments so long as the feats of Elijah and the cheats of Jacob are gravely handled by clerical
by
all
peoples. when next to nothing has
its
been found out at
in
'
all
. of course. he speaks somewhat tartly of being welcomed by " the clever superficial men and women who 'think that everything has been found out. p.. 5. and to have been by him there engraved on two and we are invited by a tables of stone which he afterwards broke professed evolutionist. Lang has no the special scruples about offending a good many sorts of people clever superficial men and women. i. of mythological science in the Biblical direction. 220-1. So long. and resent. Arnold.1868. Lang it will be difficult to set up in the reading world that state of mind which shall at once encourage and chasten the activity But even Mr.
101
and nothing but an
irrationalist bias
can account for the
profess to
capacity to accept such a record in the case of
accept also the principle of evolution in
men who human things. 2 See The New Calendar of Great Men. 371-5. as educated publicists like Professor Max Muller and the late Matthew Arnold talk of Abraham as a historical character. to recognize an abnormal verisimilitude in the tale.
who
disbelieve in Authority."'
3
The psychic
state revealed in this utterance
something to be reckoned with in our inquiry. Chips from a German Workshop. p. as we shall see presently. p. instead of making much of the Paradise and Promised Land
—
. Literature and Dogma. exhibited as it is further in the previously cited protest against "offending many people" by talking of Old Testament mythology. 1891. Gladstone swear by the flood and. 5th ed.
and do believe
is
authorities.
so long as authorities
Mr.
. 1892.
THE STAND FOE THE BIBLE
meaning
. be it added.
3
Art. represent the alphabet of all social law.
1 Muller. pp. 32.

Lang. Lang repeatedly applies to non-Christian systems and creeds." " anecdotage. secondly. p. first. On all of which it may suffice to observe. adds a demurrer
:
the wonderful tale of the Plagues.
." It is to be feared that these concessions will give a good deal of pain to " many people. Mr. some of them contemporary. Lang after all admits some of the most prominent of the Pentateuchal narratives to be as downright myths as any in the world. are " myths found all the world over " the first being "a variant of 'The Man Born to be King' Cyrus. Oidipous the exposed Eoyal child. or of those who hold other creeds that
of
." Such being his latitude. and
by the Word
who believe in both Authority and authorities. which are not part of the world's common treasury of myth ? the
rest. of the pillar and the cloud. Mr. try to
frame and reach paradises and promised lands for themselves or their posterity. that science has nothing to do with susceptibilities beyond taking care to use decent language. the night and the fire? What genius invented these. Samuel Kinns. holding God and taking the word of Dr.
"But
This
may
be a mere literary question.
'
—
—
—
passage are "nearly universal. 286. such terms as sacerdotage. they have always open to them the twofold resort of crying "infidelity" and of turning their backs on the subject. What were they doing in that galley ? Coming back to the sphere of scientific argument.
on the contrary they have shown a very general disposition to ostracize and ruin those who openly disagree with them.
and
easily
gullible
by
authorities
:
his
protecting
sympathies are only for the superficial men and women who are not clever." while variants of the sea. other mythologists may surely go the length of calling Hebrew mythology Hebrew mythology."
1
some strange
1
Art. And if the good " many people " are hurt by such language. he writes. who think everything that is found out goes to corroborate
the Bible." Mr." and " foolish faith. we note that Mr. He rather enjoys hinting that those who take a rationalistic view of the reigning religion are at best clever and
superficial. and are thus not entitled to anything more than the normal courtesies of debate on vital issues and. that the common run of the men and women in question have themselves never shown the slightest concern for the susceptibilities either of those who cannot accept their creed. Eomulus.—
102
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
of Genesis. and yet one suspects the presence of
historical facts. The stories of the finding of Moses and the passage of the Eed Sea. of the death of the firstborn. cited. Lang's mercies are somewhat straitly covenanted. however.

to
be normally assumed that either
a genius
invented them or
historical facts"?
2. 11) and the Muses (Hesiod. Virgil. Berry. xix. wherein ten months would be little more than nine solar months. the ten adults needed to
make
a
Jewish synagogue. So strong was the inclination to apply this principle that in various myths a divine child is said to have been ten months in the womb. 61 and see Diogenes Laertius {Pythagoras.
1 See the references in Bahr.
exactly wise on the part of a
modern
Theist.
THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
It is a little difficult to deal
103
with such very tentative orthodoxy
in
but
we may put
1.. would he have dreamt of raising any question of historical fact ? Would he not rather have put the ten tales under his general heading of absurd
5. Eel.. Symbolik des Mosaischen CulUis. the ten made for Arabs and Persians by the nine heavenly spheres and the earth the usage of tithes.g. 25. moon.) as to the Pythagorean biology. after
all.. earth. i. whether
writing as a mythologist or as joint author of The World's Desire. Hymn. five planets.
the answer in the form of a few questions. p.
If
ancient literature. the ten ages of the Etruscans. Apollo. the ten commandments. Hermes (Horn.
(b)
we must surmise
" the presence of
some strange
Is there anything so very staggering to the rationalist position
in the
view that a Jewish genius
?
may have had
a
hand
in
the
redaction of the Pentateuch
3. as the " finishing " and " completing " number. should we have been any more entitled to " suspect
Is there. Theog. Cp. Short History of Astronomy. iv.. 1. and central fire). and
—
if
not offensive
Is
it
— anecdotes
?
6.
—
invention than for suspecting the presence of
facts ?
some strange
historical
Mr.
. 175-183. In the Pythagorean astronomy the "counter-earth" (Antichthon) was invented simply to bring up to ten the number of bodies of the central system (sun. This idea may very well have originated in the lunar computation. 1898.
a
myth
of ten plagues in
the presence of some strange historical facts "?
ten plagues suggest ten times the
a story of one plague
4. but the higher number is mythically preserved after the solar division is instituted. ?
Or does a
story of
amount
of genius required to
make
1 Seeing that ten. if Apollo had been said to send ten plagues on the Greeks at Troy instead of one.
anything abnormal in the development of an intellectual climate in which plagues of drought and flood and vermin and disease and dragons were constantly ascribed to the punitive action of deity ? For example.
.g. Lang had met with a story of ten plagues in any other all ten of them monstrous miracles. E.
as isolated
Inasmuch
is
it
and peculiar myths are found
(a)
most
systems. the
—
ten spheres of the Pythagoreans. was one of the favourite mythic and regulative numbers in antiquity e. where the year=ten months). and so on is not the particular total of ten plagues rather a reason for inferring systematic
. the ten made by the nine Muses and their head. 58.

Lang distorts the problem from first to last. " the Chaldaean cosmogonic myth was a medley of early metaphysics and early fable. pretending that they always stood for the same deity it repeats traditions concerning mythic founders of races if all this be not a " medley of early Mr.
Does
" the rest "
include the wondrous tales of the per. Lang's discrimination is unintelligible unless fable. p." he writes.
. cited.—
104
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
1
to suggest that his deity
and Heavenly Father. 1st ed. proceeding professionally on collected materials with a sacerdotal purpose.
of a
worthy of a professed cultivator and mental science thus to darken counsel for the "superficial men and women" by suggesting that there are some supernatural facts behind a narrative which so many religionists of a rather more earnest sort have definitely given up as unhistorical. and
fire
sufficiently considered the
wonderful story of
may
spare ourselves the discussion of the pillars of
and cloud. like other cosmogonies.
3
Art." what is ? he be taken merely to mean that the Hebrew redactors.Cain and Jabal it grafts the curse of Cham on the curse of Cain. Tubal.
1
r
2
.
. Early in the eighteenth century Toland. remarking that no supernatural genius would seem to
be necessary for the adding of these items to a story which all sober Biblical criticism has admitted to be an utterly incredible
compilation of fictions. " who is not far from any one of us. 340. in the history
Joseph it makes use of various God-names. 281.
early.
medley
of early
metaphysics and early fable
history." really operated on the intelligence of a stubborn king by decimal affliction and final massacres among that
king's subjects?
7. making that finally the curse of Canaan it tells the same offensive story twice of one patriarch and again of another. Ritual.
story of the "
of
. that
It is a
is." or the
myth
of Adonis. and Religion. it gives an early "metaphysical" theory of the origin of death. We know to-day that the whole but Toland's Evemerism may serve well story of the life in the wilderness is a myth enough to meet Mr. Why is the
It is hardly
2
branch
of historical
Biblical story so different in character?"
3
It is not different in
character. life. undertook to show that the cloud " was simply the smoke of the night's guiding-fire.
Two
Brothers. " Manifestly.
formances of the rods of Moses and Aaron or are these forms of narrative which could be evolved without setting up the impression of " strange historical facts "?
Perhaps we have
the plagues. Lang's supernaturalism.
. :
"
Myth. i.
.
relatively to
known Hebrew
It ties together
two creation stories and two flood stories it duplicates several sets of mythic personages as Cain and Abel.
. But Mr. in his Hodegus. and evil it adapts the Egyptian
—
.

2 Cp. 39-40). Max Muller. as Bunsen had done. iv.
us
is
and sociology among is a matter of sociology kept fully as backward as mythology by religious prejudice
. Draper. Lang indicates. Eenan's
:
earlier days. than in those of
"
—
biology. I 1 think. vi. Robertson Smith. vii. Sack. Steinthal. any special development of bias or faculty in any people is a matter of "selection." might here. viii. setting up at 5 Jerusalem a would-be unique source of sacrificial and other revenue.
have but to recognize the Hebrews (l) as groups Palestinian tribes. 4 Saul is described (1 Sam. in the author's Short History of Freethought. Chips from a German Workshop.
but even in the light of the mere history of Jewry as rationally 3 re-written by modern Hebraists. 8 I. Yahweh. and Peschel. cite on his side many sayings of M. that has discussed it.. 33-34. none of them a mythologist. during centuries.
THE STAND FOE THE BIBLE
to
[
105
wrought them up in greater fulness and elaboration than belonged But that is exactly what a dozen Greek the older records.
1 It is rejected by Kuenen. Cp. ix. in one
We
of of
which. 2. like all other apriorisms. and Max Muller. indeed." not in the Darwinian sense that the special development enables the people to survive where others would succumb. xiv. Wellhausen.
This. Roscher (the economist). So incoherent was Eenan's thought on the subject that he alternately presented the Semites as marked
Hebrews were
—
by a
—the
minimum of religion " and a special genius or instinct for it theorem now endorsed by Mr. Spiegel. Stade. Later he massacres the priests of Yahweh (Id. There is no more mystery in the matter than in any other natural process much less. indeed. 5 Goldziher (chs. That he himself was a worshipper of Baal appears from his son's and grandson's
names (1 Chron. But the pre-scientific assumption of an innate genius for anything in an entire people must give way before science. viii) conceives the special development of Yahwistic monotheism
. Lang. 3 and xxi. Lang's final deliverance that " Behind it all is the mystery of race and of selection. previously special to 4 Judah. It is accepted by Noldeke. 17-19). the eminent genius of one tiny people for religion. See refs. the
that the
days when he told the world. is at times officially imposed^ over all others. perverted by the Yahwists (2 Sam. Nor is there anything more than uncritical rhetoric in Mr.e. mythographers and Hindu poets did with their materials there is no mystery in the matter. on the other hand. who were Amorites.. of course. the cult of Yahweh. Mr. Kuenen. Lang's difficulties cease to
exist. Goldziher. i. 4). xxii. As Mr. i. as well as by Ewald. 350-1. ii. It is an ultimate fact in the history and government of He the world. 35) as building his first altar to Yahweh after driving out the Philistines with the aid of Judah. but in the sense that special conditions bring the special development about. Bluntschli. 2 Sam. unless it be Spiegel. etc. 8. Winckler. was also the God of the Gibeonites. destitute of a mythology a proposition which has been rejected by nearly every student of mythology. welded now and then into kingdoms.

among whom the monotheistic idea has emerged by way of syncretic philosophy. associated with some development of scientific knowledge. and
1
a guardian angel
whom God
at most. but simply those
Jews who. Jeremiah xi.
We
that in despite of such
efforts. and conjoined with others. gave
to return to Jerusalem. There its scholarly and priestly members come into contact with a religion kindred to that of Yahweh. The shortcoming of Goldziher's theory lies in the usual tendency to narrow the process of explanation. and another factor is needed to account for the positive elevation and localization of a cult formerly more widespread. This principle (4) is by the Yahweh devotees among the Jews imposed on their merely tribal or nationalistic belief. though haply they might each be allowed
Baal-altars as streets. That the Return was thus partial and sectarian there is abundant evidence.20. in
contact with a much wider religious system. but in the testimony of those much
to have occurred in terms of national enthusiasm and patriotic self-consciousness and no doubt that might assist. or anti-Yahwists). and chronic invasion by other powers. from either of which directions it may have been carried to Babylonia. the rest of the nations of the world having no real God at all. far more fully documented. none the less
(2). the natural and inveterate polytheism of the people subsists in all directions. but far more literate. carried the " tiny people" by the time of the Captivity. and carried on by an endowed and leisured scholarly class.
permission to those Jews not " the " Jews
who would
was
who
returned.
which were intermittent (many of the kings being polytheists. All the political and psychological conditions must be taken into account. after undergoing defeat and depopulation by Assyria. grew more and not less fanatical in their special tribal cult.
. and all save its poorest are carried bodily into captivity by the new military power of Babylon.
had
its
innate genius for religion. But other nations were zealously patriotic without giving up polytheism. as it had earlier done in India and Egypt. 1 a Dan.13. with the result (among the most fanatical) of making out the One God to be the God of the Jews and housed at Jerusalem. x. 13. not only in the new sacerdotal literature. so that a Yahwist prophet can
describe the inhabitants even of the capital
as having as
many
Judah as having no fewer Gods than cities.
When
Cyrus.
2
Thus
far. Isa. the conqueror of Assyria. xxiv. thus going on the whole backward in its civilization and culture. is utterly overthrown.
punishes with his nation
when he
goes
wrong.
And now
which
to this
occurred the
first
main
" act of a process of " selection
day has
sufficed to set
on a
false scent the
amateurs
it
of a priori sociology.106
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
are to remember.
in contact
with a higher culture. having conquered Babylon. This polytheistic people (3). albeit they were irresistibly influenced by their surroundings towards putting a higher form on it.
. 21.

is woven into the concocted history of the past
Hades emerges while the comparatively civilized law of the new power. both under Zerubbabel and under Ezra. formerly exhortation. apparently endorsed by that " they were only the bran. 178). however. on Chaldean lines the lore of angels becomes a prominent part of the system and as time goes on and the
. What is special to the Judaic life is just the systematic writing-up of Yahwism. see Sayce.
list
Zodiacal ideas. that
all
1
returned to Jerusalem after the end of the Captivity.
THE STAND FOB THE BIBLE
more numerous Jews who remained
the latter.
now
becomes prediction. the Evil Power. that
in Babylon. which was actually claimed as a distinction by
the
in
men
of the Beturn.
. the principle of the Adversary. as they did still later after the Boman
of
Jew
to those of the Captivity that
intermarried with foreigners. and as such old Saviour-
much
Gods (Mosheh being
" the raiser-up.
107
The account
of
many
is. 51.
conquest.
of the later Palestinians. the factitious literature even of the fanatical Yahwists had begun to take on the colouring of the Chaldean culture of Babylon.
Persian cult in turn influences Jewry..
and New Testaments Connected. in Kiddushim. part i.
were mostly pedantic ceremonialists. who narrowed down the name
had returned and had not Meantime the natural diversity of thought and faculty which belonged to the Jews as to other nations was merged in the foreign populations. in which they had scattered themselves during century after century of invasion and oppression. Talmud Bab. is
the dregs of the people.
. As to the God-names Jacob and Joseph. and Records of the Past. drawn thence." and Joshua or Oshea " the Saviour" or "Conqueror"). The Old
citing
2
1
.
Already."
precise value of that estimate.
deities into servants of
Yahweh. i. 1815. Hibbert Lectures on the Babylonian Beligion. Thus Moses and Joshua.
it
Whatever may be the
with the fact
sufficiently accords
that the Jews of the Beturn.
his children's
and
in
the
story of
Joseph's dream
the task of a prophet. are made the leaders of a miraculous theocratic deliverance and conquest in the prehistoric period while the tribal legends of divine founders become the biographies of patri2 archs and various myths concerning the Gods Shamas and El and
. doubtless with modifications. v. 48.
as part of a deliberately-invented
though
redacted body of false history. from Media to Egypt. are developed
characters.
Prideaux. obviously solar personages both. and that
the fine flour stayed behind at Babylon. New Series. book iii (ed. is embodied in the pretended law of Moses.
Jacob's
of
. p. The very institution of the synagogue dates from the Babylonian sojourn. and credited to the theocracy. and the turning of the old local
the idea of a
secular
.

Israel " in the
2 3
. 1856.
tageous to religion to describe
forced or grafted
it
as a genius for that.
closing of their canon. so long as that temple whereafter he figures as the " Chief Rabbi of Heaven.
but
it is
a kind of
faculty on all fours with
any other deliberate specialism." For-
merly he had spent three hours a day in " playing with Leviathan ". Arabia.
. good and bad.
and
to the last
of
it
never overcame the indurated
tribalism and ceremonialism
for
the mass of the selected people. Samuel. the Chaldeans. 195. Gesehichte Israels. pp. or the Austradied
in
those
who had
infancy.
The express
is
doctrine of the latter. Elijah.
whom
. and article on "The Names of the First Kings of Modern Bevieiv. Lang. Finally. The quality of a genius for religion might just as well be ascribed to the Egyptians. 170 sq. in fine. Its supposed antecedents in Essenism are themselves of late and foreign origination in Jewry. and is certainly post-exilic. January. 462. 1884 W'inckler. Elisha. in which all phenomena are explained in terms of themselves. and the hours formerly given to recreation are spent in instructing
Such was the "genius for Jewish doctors before they began to acquire new heathen lore from contact with the Saracens. The most admired Biblical
if written by a Jew at all. p.
All that is relatively high in Judaism. the Persians. the Hindus. The quasi-monotheism and ethical universalism of the later prophets is similarly a product of
book. History
The Making
of Religion-. As for their ethic. only in the hands of the superior few among the Rabbis does it surpass the measure of altruistic thought which Mr. that of Job. is by one who had been in contact with the life and culture of Persia. as to
the Jews. of the Jewish Nation after the Destruction of Jerusalem.
lians. 52-57. ii. etc. p.
foreign influences
." oddly objected to by Mr.
lasts
its God is the tenant of one temple. of late GraecoJewish and Gentile teaching. citing the Avoda Sara. is demonstrably
on the primitive cult from without. and Egypt. and David. In all this
there
is
doubtless a faculty for cult-building
. Kenan's phrases about " the clean and sober imagination of Israel. and belong to
the pre-scientific interpretation of history."
2
religion "
exhibited by the
. Christianity is on its theological side an unquestionable adaptation of the Pagan principle of theanthropic sacrifice and on its ethical side is merely a blending. the Arabs.108
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
David and Saul and Solomon 1 are reduced to biographic details in the lives of Samson. Lang 3 for another purpose credits to the aborigines of Australia and Africa. but after the fall of the holy city the heavenly court is in mourning.
Edersheim. Hibbert Lectures. such as Brahmanic metaphysic or Roman law and it is not very advan. since the
.
1
a negation of all progress in religion
and
Sayce. are quite in his own spirit.

and the
religious separateness
and persistence
of
the Jews
of
it all a special and peculiar mystery is merely to raise mystification.
245.
1
Only
in
the last sentence of his valuable book
religion.
§
2. dealt with. The race as a religious group in Europe stands collectively for mere mental fixation and separatism. to ignore
their symbolical
development and later
ethical connotations
is
:
in the treatment of Christianity the principle
to pass over the concrete
myth forms
altogether and consider only
the metaphysic and the ethic that have been grafted on
them
."
When
the mythological basis of
Hebrew
is
religion.
2
does
Dr.
conceded
a
thus put back in doubt by professedly anthropological mythologists to-day. Frazer glance at the obvious survival of theanthropic sacrifice
and the Tree Cult in the Christian
In this connection
we
find the procedure of the anthropological school completely reversed. pp. alike
tians.
century ago by
theologians. In medieval and modern times.THE STAND FOE THE BIBLE
their
109
of commentary has less intellectual bulk and kind in the world.
German
Excepting Sir George Cox. which in its kind is paralleled in different degrees in the cases of Brahminism. 242-3.
218. as in ancient.
—
—
as of Christianity
.
Christianity
and "Degeneration. either English or continental. as well
of the hostile reaction they set up.
first
In the second edition (1900) the Christian
. his lectures in The Religious Systems of the World. So rooted is the habit that the most recalcitrant theories are
1
Cp. 3rd ed. To call
is
a
strictly
analogous to that of the survival
of
and culture-contacts and the special phenomenon Jewish religiosity is no more a mystery than Japanese art or Eussian fiction. Lang. the problems of Christian mythology are naturally kept far in the background. albeit ineffectually. Jewish faculty like every other is evoked and developed by
phenomenon the Parsees. 241.
or to
admit as myths only the Catholic inventions of the Middle Ages. end. and Mohammedanism. the result first of its own claims and secondarily
accumulated literature
its
value than anything of
among Pagans and ChrisThe fact of the preservation of the bulk of the later heterogeneous Hebrew literature as a mass of sacred books mutually contradictory as so many of them are is in itself only another sociological fact.
2
This applies only to the
is
problem
edition. Buddhism. In its treatment of " pagan " myth the aim is always to go back to the
earliest forms.
special conditions
. hardly one of the later professed mythologists.
with the tacit consent of such authorities as Mr. has a word to say on the
subject.

tempered by interpolated denial. so. In a certain sense. grafting of a pagan sacrificial and propitiatory creed on the old. for the Jews and others who adopted it. Then. in the misleading fashion of Mr. 325. instead of classifying
and that the
so
historic religion
Hebrew
much
so that the temple at Jerusalem
this
on
his
general
it
principle
as
a process
of
" degeneration.
ii. with
gift
doctrine of
immortality added as a
from
is
Animism. 304. Ritual. when we come to Christianity (a fresh religions that be. Lang treats
the
" priceless "
as the
consummation
of the " pure " theory.
ii. where Mr." he does not once
3
recognize
mythical.
accommodated
religion as disparate
We have seen Mr. Mr. whereof " the stuff
same
as are nature
myths and
divine myths. Lang treating the Hebrew and superior to those of other ancient peoples. Lang sets aside his own doctrine we may fitly ask what is the true formula. whose
creed had been involved in sacrifice and anthropomorphic
this in the face of the facts that the written
myth
"
—
Hebrew religion
contains
a mass of anthropomorphic myths.
329."
. Lang and 4 Mr.
he
speaks of the religion of Israel as " probably a revival and purification of the old conception of a moral.
only the
In this connection. iv.
4
8
305. and Religion. If we suppress most of the facts about Judaism. describing it as a "pure" monotheism. beneficent creator. 363. Collected Essays.
i. Huxley. 5.
—
—
1
Myth.
that
the Gospels
themselves contain matter
late
equally
are
On
the contrary.110
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
to
it. As in the Zoroastrian system the cult of Mithra gradually supersedes in a measure that of Ahura-Mazda.
sacrifice
being in his opinion a descent to a lower plane of
thought
—
albeit
perhaps by " supernormal " means. albeit by way of abolishing animal sacrifice).
ed.
Finally.
that
he assumes that Christianity was
popular
accretions
"given pure. in a later work.
was one of systematic sacrifice. arguing strenuously for a "pure" primeval monotheism in which the God was not sacrificed
to
. had normally the aspect Such are the accommodations granted to the of a shambles."
Mr. the cult of Jesus in a measure superseded that of Yahweh or the " Theos " in general and this obviously because the humanized and suffering God comes home to "the business and bosoms of men " and women so much more easily than does the
of "degeneration. etc. we may easily see degeneration in the Christian polytheism grafted upon it.
2 Id. 2nd
Id. Lang's theory of the triumph of the " squarable " God does actually here hold good.
We have seen him again.
Freely granting that Christianity in the Middle Ages
the
2 developed a multitude of 7Mrc/i<m-myths.
." and
mythical. ii. 312.

who revolts from the vulgar model.
i. Ra.
95.
—
1
Cp. receded
majesty in exact proportion as the Mother was obtruded on popular reverence. degeneration
is
In some such fashion. a statue. of finer sensibility. Adonis. As Mother and Woman she was. A given convention is contentedly acquiesced in by the majority but there comes along the man of genius.—
.
Demeter and Perse-
phone.
who
in
turn. After a time. it is the fact that (l) a God becomes relatively "high. Lang's phrase. perhaps after he has been stoned or starved. all flourished for just such reasons in comparison with the cults of Zeus.
. Lang's theory takes no note of to wit. more easily "squared". as
Logos and Judge and part
of the Ineffable Trinity. In the higher civilizations. a picture. and proceeds
makes
for
to create
something be it a novel.
pictures positively destroys in a large
population the faculty of
1
thinking reasonably about religion at
indeed. however." That term may indeed be fitly applied to the process whereby a once imageless conception of any God is made fixedly concrete through the use of images or a multiplication of images and
.
111
The
cults of Attis.
them a stepping-stone to a higher art and a As regards art. not Such a law is perhaps not without its before generally possessed.
—
. always going on alongside of progress. Herakles. again. insists that it does not stand for the truth which he perceives.
THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
remote Creator. there occurs something that Mr. the author's'/STiorf History of Freetlwught. Isis and Osiris. comforting side. by the very process of introducing another God between him and the worshipper and (2) that the obtrusion of a crude belief or a crude art on superior
all. But it is an unscientific use of the term to call this development "degeneration. In any case. and the And for the same reason. till it in turn becomes a convention repellent to a later genius and again there is innovation.
of the Virgin
Mary
in later times overlaid the cult of Jesus. again. this better model is accepted by many. In both kinds of case alike. The process is however complicated at all times by the rule of
. a recoil from the vulgar conception towards a higher. Dionysos. in Mr. Ptah. degeneration is endemic in so far as bad life-conditions are always creating a larger area of low culture around centres of high culture. or of more various culture. or a poem which better satisfies his tastes or perceptions. we see the process every day." and positively less unethical. and it was as an intercessor with her more judicial Son that she was generally
into a cloudier
welcomed. the cult rest of the " high " Gods.
intelligences
less gross credence.

which Mr. meddling in everything. Lang obscures by his To put it plainly. And instead of the adoption of intermediate Spirits or lower Gods being a process of moral declension. it may at times be resorted to for the very purpose of refining and exalting the greater God. Thus we know that in the Samaritan Pentateuch later writers deliberately substi1 tuted " the Angel of the Lord. Lang contends. the extent to which the higher doctrine is assimilated and thus far in human history the general law is one of the prevalence of crude and ignorant beliefs. is really very simple. a God becomes polemic. in the sense of having so many more stories told about him. through the interposition of another God between him and the worshipper. The process. All the while. more " mythological. as Mr." for "the Lord. more respectable precisely as he gets less to do.
. however." on the obvious ground that Yahweh's dignity was lowered by making him appear But the law has a more in human guise on parochial errands. that the simple removal of a God by one or more degrees from direct worship. To
1
Cp. moral elevation precisely through his hierarchical elevation. the partial substitution of the angel for the deity in Exod. or whether genius itself can
evolve to good purpose. however..
112
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
the environment. has pro tanto an elevating effect on the older God. either because the majority are always of low mental calibre. relatively to the effort made. which determines whether the majority can or can not rise to the finer presentment.
.
. interpolated by later hands) rebuking the ethic of their fellow-monotheists and fellow-prophets Pindar. It stands to reason that when he was the near God. or because they are
sideration in the case of religion. or of their retention alongside of the more refined the broad reason being that the mass of the people have always been more or less crudely ignorant.
And
this is the specially important con-
At all stages. Zeus in the Greek mythology acquires his relative general bearing.
think.
. there operates the general law above stated." so to say.
ii.
:
always uncultured. he was so much the more obviously made in the image of his worshippers. or from both causes concurrently. find Hebrew prophets (haply. Bowdlerizing the current myths Homer and the Vedas leaving the ugliest out Egyptian and Brahman priests evolving an esoteric system which turns to symbols the barbarisms But the socio-political conditions determine of the popular cult. there is reason to some measure above the prevalent and their success is in the ideas.
some minds have
risen in
. as aforesaid. and have sought to correct these Thus we ratio of the total facilities.

and meddles all the more in human affairs. the relation of Christianity to Judaism. in which totemic Gods. It is even maintained that his cult grew out of various animal worships.
note. pp.
1909.
7. " high " by the If.
—
Jesuits
who demanded
1
"
works
"
and the Pauline party who insisted
But see above. would
as generally envisaged. and was pantheistically resolved into the idea of a universal Mind.
and bore the heavier burdens
partly saved his dignity
superstition
. had tales told of 1 It is when he is put them which survive in the lore of Olympus. a tribal and sacerdotal God. some tribes he was the One God.
p. helped by Greek thought. it is
. a God is made relatively simple process of being made to overshadow or absorb similar deities as seems to have happened in the case of Apollo. are the really old data in the matter.THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
start with. and thus becomes the Sun-God for Hellas in general there is in the terms of the case no proportional ethical elevation. as the swan and the bull. he entailed a tribal and sacerdotal ethic and though doubtless a few. Lang's theory.
over others in the position of Supreme Judge. he was not a high " God.
but inasmuch as
Yahweh
of the popular remained. ed. supposing
against his will. now.
The One God
was not "high" at the last any more than The intervening host of angels and demons.
at the
first. overruling the more wayward actions of the younger Olympians. The low" myths about him.
still
break down. save for the
'
113
even
few better minds.
.
which men's minds were portions. may be theoretically elevated by a concurrent improvement in
—
—
general ethical thought but this is not in virtue of his increased importance and his continued direct activity will always involve a counter-tendency which in part makes the higher ethic nugatory. which we are told have no connection with the alleged
if
for
'
high primordial religion. since he has only the more stories He told about him. As regards. on the other hand. 119-20. indeed. the Almighty who " plays with Leviathan " and sits as Chief Rabbi in Heaven is not a relatively imposing conception. speculated at a higher level. that he begins to lend
and the highest of all were those formed when the God-idea became so remote as to elude form.
easy to see that Mr.
it
to
be applied
of the Jews.
Reinach. of
himself to higher ethical ideals
. who is made the father of so many local Sun-Gods.
. The first Christists accordingly were but doing what the myth-making and religionmaking mind has always done in its innovations seeking to frame a rather more satisfying ethic.
S. Orpheits. despite the higher
ideas of
some prophets or their interpolators. This holds good both of the Judaic
.

its ethic being pro tanto widened.
dotalism had come into complete possession the ethic remained
with many popular myths superadded. the contribution of the saner or finer minds. act as a stimulus to the Jewish mind in a new environment. continue to see history in others. But in the process it became more and more sacerdotal and when sacer.
ethic
§ 3.
Even when the outworks thrown up for Christianity by an imperfect mythology and by economic conditions are removed.
seem unable to realize its mythic origin some who. after ages of social vicissitude. and the cues of accumulated mythological knowledge. which they could not collectively transcend. So obvious is the play of such bias in every great issue that it should be one of the first duties of every
educated
passional.
Beginning as a Jewish variation. the enlisted affections. in the name at once of mythological science and of social rectitude. Hence the need. the emotional habit.
on
The
latter did in point of
fact adopt a
common and
ancient Gentile conception
— that
of a sacrificed Divine
Man
. with the help of recovered Greek thought. with a variety of ethical ideas of which some. despite Dupuis and Volney and Strauss and the plain bearings of the latest mythological researches.
The Psychological Besistance
to
Evidence. to the principles of geology.
Some even who
see the untenability of the original
.
of Christism. however. did transcend the
central dogma. the cult was developed on a broader ethnic basis.
offered
—
man
how
to challenge his
own
case at every serious encounter
see
with an innovating doctrine.
. Thus it could come about that the spectacle of its crudity and its anthropomorphism could in turn. there will still remain to be met the obstinate resistance offered to every scientific view of religious origins by the forces in
the
camp to wit.
unjudicial. to the principles of Darwin. and as a point of repulsion for the new cult of Islam which movements between them. has been the resistance
—
advance in succession roundness and motion of the earth. Meanwhile.
but
they gradually surrounded this conception.114
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
faith. the acquired code of judgments. to apply to Gospel myths the tests of comparative method.
Most men can now
how
purely
how
prejudiced. with Strauss. Yet in every
to the truths of the
by orthodoxy
to every great scientific
. thus reached a higher ethic and a higher level of cosmic speculation. detect some of the myths. the European economic system serves to maintain in popular credit the mythology
fixed in its original crudity.

if not indecency.
hold with the savages that
the Christian
with civilized
myths are preposterous and some savages can see men that the savage myths are so.
i.
We
partial explanation. can recognize unreason and fiction in other men's faiths and unconsciously run their heads against them in their own.
may
men
sense in the old notion and extravagance in the
:
have seen how Mr. in the myths on which he was brought up whereupon he inadequately observes that savages and That is but a civilized men have different standards of credulity.annihilative dicta from the second and twelfth chapters of Mommsen's History of Borne. as he is aware. the Latin sank into a singular insipidity and dulness. The determining
is
simply freedom. And if any inquirer difficult to understand how modern investigators can make fish of one myth and fowl of another. He sees at a glance the nonsense and indecency of the myths of savages.
condition of vision
lasts.
be sure.
. but exhibit no
may
suspicion that they contain any contradictions at
all.
Many
civilized
men
.
I quote
from
the 1868 edition of Dickson's translation
"But. and
how
far
it
may
avail to confuse historical
serve to compare two sets of mutually. they can equally see absurdity.
91. on the other hand.
it
far
such incoherence
may
go in the case of a
writer of repute. and Religion. Lang fails to find offence or absurdity most offensive and absurd " anecdotes " when they occur in the Pentateuch. Hardest of all does it seem to be where the habit has been bound up with worship and chronic religious emotion. we 115
thought they saw commonnew so easy is it to find the rational in the habitual. so hard to consent to see by new light. he should firstly pay heed to the phenofinds
it
mena
and self-contradiction which so abound in argumentative literature even where writers are not mastered by the
of inconsistency
special bias of a creed or prejudice or conservative sentiment. original or acquired. is
one of the most blinding of influences."
in the
. even after he has taken to crediting them 1 with " selfless " ethics and. from But the prepossession. but are merely giving play to the different currents of sentiment set up in
them by detached impressions which they do not seek or do not
contrive to co-ordinate.—
THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
one of these cases.
.
Myth. while it prepossession in a given direction. Ritual. with the preliminary assurance that the chapters not only make no attempt at a synthesis of the contradictions.
As showing how
science. and early became shrivelreligion
1
:
"At the very core of the Latin religion there lay that profound moral impulse which leads men to bring
1st ed.

the universal "
29
ch.
in substance
made up"
(i. a singuconception and of
the products of
had
in the effort to
. like every other.
earthly objects "
(i. certainly. The Romans made efforts.
the spiritual and
. 2).
Romans
dogmatize so chaotically as does he can contrive to think thus incoherently on a question on which he has no master-passion to blind him.
fathom
the abyss of thought
superficial view. as we have already said.
to the attainment of very substantial
the world of
the
Gods"
(ch.
193.
the depth of the stream because
is
outward abstraction of the homeliest simplicity.
which
is
only to a deceived as to
is
it
"Of such
notions.
in search of advice early betook themselves to the Delphic Apollo himself" (i.
184).
Mommsen
but
if
. 198-9). and never were able to exercise a serious control over public or private
acquired
the
life " (i. it
It is given to few. or at the most to the making their will known by the method of casting lots.
remained larly low level
insight "
(i.
.
185). 184). sometimes ridiculous Roman theology was
—
clear. or
Roman
"
The Latin
its origin
religion.
the
"But
faith
the forms of
at. to treasure up such counsels [Greek oracles] and copies of the leaves of the Cumaean Sibyl
. above all things an instrument for helping him
ceremonies.
of
sank to.116
led into
THE PEOGKESS OF MYTHOLOGY
earthly guilt and earthly punishment
into relation with
an anxious and dreary round of The God of the Italian was.
" Comparatively slight traces are to
be found
in
among
in
the
Romans
of belief
ghosts.
by a practical and utilitarian tendency
(i. 12
:
i.
197).
fear of
enchantments.
191). or
Oracles
dealing
mysteries. even at an early period.
"It [Roman religion] was unable to excite that mysterious awe after which the human heart has always had a longing" (i. 12). as he had in his utterances on the Celtic races and on French civilization if he can in different moods see spiritual profundity and mere mechanical externality in one and the same set of religious phenomena.
"The Latin worship was grounded mainly on man's enjoyment of earthly
pleasures
"
(i. 193). that its transparent spirit-world
—
can appear to be shallow"
(i. sometimes venerable.
" The language of the Roman Gods was wholly confined to Yea and Nay. to
.
and
importance in Italy which they obtained in Greece.
" This indifference to ideal elements
in the
"
Throughout the whole
of
nature he
Roman religion was accompanied
"
[the
Roman] adored
(i.
it
181).
192).
For the reading and interpretation
the fortune-telling book a special
college
was instituted in early times. ch.
prophecy never
were accordingly a highly -valued
of
gift.

or that violates the rules of propriety. his opportunities.
is
The
believing Christian
who
for the first time
however guardedly. of which even the last
1
is
Part
vii.
frivolous interests. that the only thing that would have created surprise would have been the absence of
this element. though cognate and
and
least different in particulars
in their circumstances. " There
it
is
we
find
not duly called for by the circumstances
the supernatural does interpose. One
inquirer put together a list of the Mohammedan myths about Jesus. and so suitable to the aim of the whole. that his creed is historically on all fours with those of its age. it may be well to scrutinize closely a few arguments which were earnestly or adroitly put together when Strauss seventy years
told.
—
there are no no miracle which is none that serves merely
claimed. With the wrecks of such arguments the path of discussion has been more and more thickly strewn for the last two hundred years. is sure to be sincerely scandalized. the life of the Founder was as credible as that of
case of
miracles. only more industriously developed."
it
"
Where
so
presents
itself in
a
manner
unconstrained. pp. In the " hyperbolical delineations.
gave a new reverberation to the doctrine that Christian supernaturalism is part of the subject-matter of mythology. To him the two sets of phenomena are wholly disparate. Strauss.
.
1845."
gospels.
of Voices of
tlxe
Church in Reply
to
Dr. despite its supernaturalism.
On the first head the line of argument was very much that of Mr. As had been sought to be done in the eighteenth century in the
ago
strove to show that what were called had nothing in common with the admitted of Paganism and that on the other hand.
men
. and his interlocutors. And it finally depends on his intellectual qualities. Lang. and with of course more resort to the stock "bluffs" of Christian Evidence. But as many still see in the wrecks nothing but good building material.
myths myths
in the gospels
Julius Caesar. whether he ever gets beyond framing arguments which merely follow the beck of his prejudice."
1
Place beside these typical assertions. his studies.THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
becomes at
least
117
much
less surprising that
men
should see in such
similar. because his feelings about them have always been so. as well as in
degree of familiarity. are at
different lights
phenomena which. and that its prodigies are but myths and false marvels like those of Paganism. 355-9. and claimed to show that all had an extravagant or frivolous or ill-finished character that was totally absent from the
German
gospel narrative.

The wholesale turning
1
of
water into wine at a feast at which
a presumable sufficiency of wine had been already consumed. As thus :— " And as Jesus came from that city with his disciples there lay before them on the way a dead dog.
on a tempest.
there
was
and that the Founder multiplied that food for superfluity enough to fill exactly twelve
of a
The instantaneous cure
malady
its
of long standing
through
a touch on the
6. as
It figures out at over a thousand 2 Let the "apocryphal" story
.
The miraculous draught of fishes. containing only five (or seven) loaves and
two
(or a few) fishes.
1. and if they could without scandal accept it in exchange
travail of several generations
more.
The instant restoration of maimed limbs.
some extent
edited by
!
it did previous German critics. The catching of the fish with the coin
. yielding a much larger pro-
portion of sane matter simply because they represent the literary
and the selected thoughts of many men bent on making a Christist movement whereas the Mohammedan myths about Jesus are mere random survivals.
in its
mouth
to
pay
the tribute
taken in connection with the statement that Judas
normally carried a stock of money for the group. Jesus answered " Ah how beautifully white are the dog's teeth. which
set reasonable
narratives
:
are really flotsam from early Christian lore. Yet if Christians had found in their gospels the story that when the disciples complained of the smell of the dead dog." with the added explanation. The story that 5.
9." that is. and the effect will be tolerable enough.
The
so-called
Moham-
medan myths. a few of the
only a delightful development of a
actual Gospel miracles. ignorant
myths
of
the ordinary Oriental sort. but be told in the archaic style of the English versions of ttie Gospels.
The rebuking
of the wind. in the completest degree. And the disciples
1
The quantity
of the
wine greatly impressed Strauss. 10. 4. devoid
of
" propriety.
hem
of the
Messiah's garment.
Nothing save a prepossession approaching to hebetude can obscure the fact that these are just "irrational.
5.
in
epileptic
patients. they would have been well 2 pleased. The walking on the waves.000 persons went into the wilderness with twelve (or more) baskets. The rebuking and expulsion of the "devil"
8.tossed The instantaneous removal of leprosy. and the
sea. 3. imperial pints.
immediate " great calm
7.
2."
for
instructed people. and even touching thoughts alongside of absurd the gospels do the same.
till
the host
baskets.
all
to
.118
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
common
implication. "
with
instant cessation.

plea.
That the great Messiah
sleep in the boat
down weary
at Jacob's well. but see ye not the wondrous whiteness of the dog's teeth ? This spake he unto them that they should take heed to see the good in all the works of God. Met thus at every turn by the challenged parallel. that in
he gave utterance to the deepest feelings of as little have appeared in a mytho-poetical picture of his life. cited. and that they should think not of the faults but of the righteous deeds of their brethren. that
come with
on the
lake."
1
Such are the devices of " foredeeming.
see the
now normally
sophisticated consciousness of religious
men
prompting them to claim sexlessness for the old Gods and turn the
were much offended with the smell thereof. " By the wayside she sat her down. Can the apologist ever have read of " outworn Demeter. 23.
many would
promptly and gladly make the transaction. and in as many of Buddhism."
1
Vol." In not a single case does any gospel ascribe any act whatever to its own writer.
Again. or indicate who its writer was the apologist has but adduced myth to defend myth. As for the picture of the God resting by the well. searching for Persephone"? sore in heart. at the Maiden Well. slightly altered. when the apologist claims it to be a specialty of gospel narrative to contain simple and natural episodes. in the shadow where overhead grew a thicket of olives. And the Lord rebuked them and said. he does but exclude
from his survey one-half
"
of the literature of
sat
mythology. p.
. 357. where the townsfolks drew their water.THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
for
119
the inept
story of the cursing of the fig-tree. Edgar's trans. the customary apologist usually ends by insisting that the Gospels stand out from all other sacred histories in respect of their utter aloofness from the that Jesus alone of the Gods of old is without the instinct of sex But this again is a fallacious passion of the male for the female. as the honest and sober-minded confessions of their own conduct which the evangelists so
artlessly
he was overGethsemane and on the cross human weakness all this would
—
embody
in their narratives. it can be paralleled on the side of artlessness in a dozen of the most familiar myths of Hellas.
. Apollo himself is acclaimed as hagnos. Nay. for the entire literature of the early Christists is in the same way stamped with the character of an age in which Oriental asceticism has become the standard of sanctity and the new God 3 is but specialized as Virgin Goddesses had been before him. or sleeping in the boat. In her guise she was like unto an aged woman who is bereft of childbearing and the gifts of garland-loving Aphrodite They knew "2 her not: the Gods are hard for men to discern* This of Great Demeter.
2 3
Homeridian
I
Hymn to Dimeter. of the many temples and the glorious name. say nothing of the unpleasant problem raised by the wording of John
xiii. the chaste God and in Julian we
:
—
.

than in Christism. p. p. 27) does not even tell further of the fulfilthen the miracle here consists simply in the foreknowledge. as before observed. vii. Providence attached a peculiar blessing to his labours on this occasion and he found in the mouth of the first fish which he caught a coin. 1 Christ's foreknowledge of the result constitutes.
xvii. Clement of Alexandria actually accepted and prized the
of
Cana
is
neither here nor there. p. Voices of the Church.
To
reply that the Gnostic of Alexandria would have scouted the miracle
Gnosticism had many mansions. note. The fourth edition of the original says in conclusion only " Der zuerst gefangene Fisch sollte so viel einbringen.
The narrative (Mt." 2 Das Leben Jesu Christi. Kap. 273. of a transaction which from his peculiar point of view must have appeared utterly unworthy of the Saviour's dignity. end. for the first miracle of Christ. i.
As if supererogatory absurdity were not enough. that prodigy is but a proof of foreknowledge. § 83. 4te Aufl. The formula is naught.
If
But the extremity of Neander's bias is best illustrated by his handling of the miracle of Cana." 2
would be hard to be more arbitrary.
is
and no modern
entitled to say that there
1 Cp. da ein von ihm verschlungener Stater in ihm gefunden wurde. but changes the venue:
" If we are to regard the author of that [the fourth] gospel as a man of Alexandrian culture. 4te Ausg. alleges its Gnosticism only so far
It
forth as the Gospel can be
shown
to contain Gnostic thought. dispose of the miracle of the fish with the stater in its mouth
in
less
:
dominant
Buddhism no
" He [Jesus] wrought no miracle in order to procure the necessary money. that the fourth Gospel suggests Alexandrian or Greek culture and a Gnostic leaning."
. Here he does not employ the foreknowledge" formula. The theorem of Strauss 8 and others. so will he look in the very face of puerility in his own myths and vow that it is surpassingly divine. Das Leben Jesu Christi.— —
120
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
And
the principle
is
stories of their appetites to pure allegory. in which Jesus actually tells Peter in advance that he will find the coin in the mouth of the first fish. 428-9. 1845. nay. it does so in every case in which Jesus says anything before a miracle is consummated. Even as the determined believer will not see charm or sobriety in any myth of the heathen. the miraculous element in the transaction.
ment. The passage is thus translated in Voices of the Church. as before cited.
:
. which had probably been sivallowed a short time before. pp. is incomprehensible. in an English translation.. the theologian must needs glose the narrative. but told Peter to have recourse to his usual calling. whose mind was imbued with the notions of the Gnostics. 427. 3 Das Leben Jesu. were not thousands of the earlier Gnostics who would have accepted the miracle with reverence. his selection. Thus does no less a teacher than Neander. 508.

His argument must remain that the story is to be held apostolic How then because it would scandalize an educated Alexandrian. we have a systematic It may have priestly imposture.
1
2
God was miraculously and dramatically
. In the Christian tale there is no such element left above ground and we are driven to ask whether the first
.
true that he never refers to
that the water-and-wine
might be argued on Neander's premiss was an addition to the original perhaps made after Clement's time. tract. when we what can we say. I. into wine ad captandum vulgus.
is
that the gospel miracle
As for the rest of us. actually repeated year by year.
word disparages the
while he revels in the
miracle. except that in his view repeating what he did annually in the course of nature.
The
modern
apologist
who
felt that " in the
Gospel miracles the only
thing that would have created
surprise would have been the absence" of the supernatural. or the story may originally have been told by way of embodying that doctrine in a mythos. was clearly at the true primeval point of view but even he would have been hard put to it to show that the Christian tale is more dignified or more plausible than the repeatedly "attested" wine-miracle wrought annually in the Dionysian temple of Andros in solemn manifestation of the might of the
. as to how such a story came first to be told. But this view would of course be repudiated by Neander as reducing the miracle to myth once for all. of their subtler principle that the Sun-God 2 turned water into wine in ripening the grape. In Joann. This was actually Augustine's gloss of the Christian miracle.
THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
name
of Gnostic It
is
.
God
over his special element.
collate the
two
prodigies.
." " and his disciples believed on him. cited by Strauss.
the
See the treatise on The Gospel Myths in the present volume.. that the naif phrases " manifested his glory. equally set up by other episodes in the gospels namely. In the Dionysiak miracle. an esoteric idea presumably underlay the annual performance. as reasoning men. In any case. been done in pursuance of some old tale of the God turning water or it may have been the priests' reduction to falsehood."
doctrine of the Logos
and
it
story
reveal a notion of divinity
and Messiahship which puts the narrative
outside the pale of tolerable testimony for a critical reader.
single
it
. it will probably be allowed. Div.
121
and he never by a
. § 11. but a parody of the Pagan ?
:
1
At the next stage of the analysis there arises an issue that is the question. came any educated Alexandrian ever to be an orthodox Christian and how came Clement to let the miracle pass ? The special pathos of the defence lies in the perception it betrays that the story is a scandal to the educated modern . 8.

we can but answer that the formula will have For we really know nothing of the precise manner of to be recast. If. and a prompt pretence to lay hold of the land by
quasi-historical narratives
. it follows that the conception of " myth " should be allowed broadly to include not
only stories of a supernatural cast told of divine personages. though it has been ascribed to them all and that there were not four Christian nurses who respectively alleged that they had witnessed the death-beds of Voltaire. and Mr.
as
it is
.
that any story once written
§ 4. Johnson and Talleyrand and Sidney Smith and Douglas Jerrold.
we
are reasonably entitled
once. there must have been a beginning in somebody's deceit. Blank. we find related of Julius Caesar and William the Conqueror and other great captains the tale of a stumble on landing in a new country. but some told about historical personages.
may have happened
decide that the
did not
same witticism was not really uttered by Voltaire and Dr. They were all traditionary forms of error and the business of mythology is to trace as far as may be how they came to be started and conserved. But here we must reckon with a logical difficulty of obvious
happen repeatedly
just as
. say. we rather count ourselves to have therein a sidelight on coincidences When all is said.
If the foregoing argument be substantially sound. how the human mind manufactures these modern false coincidences. but
which fall short of asserting downand not only stories of that cast told about nonhistorical personages. and the belief that Jesus turned so many firkins of water into wine by divine volition.122
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
It is
narrator of the Christian version was other than a wilful vendor of
fiction. and would not Knowing again see a freethinker die for all the wealth of the Indies.
we
.
The Problem of Non-Miraculous Myth. And if on this we are met with the old formula that a wilful fiction is not a myth. and as a belief it was for all practical purposes on all fours with the belief that Alexander was the son of Jupiter Ammon. Eousseau. We only know that it was believed .
hard to see
how we can answer
down
in
favourably
:
certain
an accepted gospel was sure to be believed. for instance. hardly any other way of divining how primeval men contrived to tell the same stories with innumerable variations of names and minor details. origin of. the myth of Isis and Osiris.
it
to say that. Thomas Paine.
though the thing
. we have of a more sacrosanct sort in older times.
many
right miracle
way
of reassuring superstitious soldiers.

troublous rather for the Protestant than for the
is
The story
vouched
:
how came
it
to be
told?
Is
it
that an element of
?
myth
really
did get into the
biography even of Luther
Once
started. undertook similarly to confute Strauss by a work supposed to be produced by a Mexican mythologist in the year 2836. Das Leben Luther's kritisch bearbeitet.
. in a sufficiently German manner.
with. 2 wherein Luther is shown to be a myth. the rebuttal is simple enough. such cases is the mock demonstration by Archbishop Whately that Napoleon=Apollo.
.
and the question as to
Luther's birth
mythologist.
.
theorem
of the unreality of
is
place-names
very
ill
.
123
importance.
. which undermines his power his defeat by the northern hosts his twelve marshals=the signs of the zodiac his passing away in the western hemisphere in the midst of the sea. Many a student must have been for a moment as much bewildered as entertained by the series of data the birth in a Mediterranean island. the mother-name Laetitia=Leto= the four brothers=the Latona the three sisters=the Graces the hero's overrunning of the surname Bonaparte seasons Europe the two wives=Moon and Earth .
.
. Further. In this case
history and literature
biographies are found to chime in a queer
—
. as a later writer it reproduced in
would be apt to put it. It all seems at first sight uncommonly awkward for the solarists and a German theologian. which has been somewhat adroitly turned to account
of
This difficulty
mythical interpretations of certain religious narrais that there are very odd coincidences in
:
and that some perfectly attested modern way with certain mythThe most familiar and the most striking of all cycles of antiquity. and the curious story that Luther was born while his mother was on a journey.
1
3
See
Or.
. and the modern Greek pronunciation nearly Apoleon=the Apollyon of Bunyan's allegory.THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
by opponents
tives. Strauss.
much
for Apollo is
even
mythical person and nine-tenths of the Napoleon data do not apply to Apollo at all though the Archbishop might have improved his case by noting that the Greek spelling is Apollon.
.
.* the apparition in Egypt the turning-point of the hero's career in the land of winter. Here the effect is much less striking and the main hits are made over the mythical appearance of the name Wartburg.
To begin
.
.
. Apollo had not three sisters and four brothers and was not defeated by northern hosts and had a great
.
. with more point. The Voices of the Church in Beply to Dr. the
clever Archbishop's thesis proves far too
in his opinion a
. Dawn and Twilight.
it
begins to appear that the satire has come home to roost for the mythical interpretation of the gospel narrative does not rest on a
.
.

man
test. .
b. The Sermon on the Mount is further demonstrably a collection
All alike are
. in 1873.
—
—
clever for the safety of the creed ?
It is only gradually that the average
man
learns to appreciate
the logical recoil of such dialectic. of
which there
is
:
a whole series. as thus
a. they cannot possibly be solved by any record of a real career.
Here we see how a myth may be superAs regards (2) the miracles. He laughed at Copernicus. as for others. as in
which may be usefully
corrective. And for the rest.
many wives and a great many sons and never led any hosts.
Bretzivil
und von
For the a
Bretten. and unemployed by the other epistle-writers.
Finally comes the category of presumptively-
fictitious utterances.
(c)
like
the miracles. is
this. at telescopes. visibly
in
unknown
the the
falls
exposure of the infant Moses.
unknown to the writers of the Pauline epistles. as did the late Professor Baden Powell in the Essays and Beviews. the Temptation. though Dionysos did and save in one stray myth never died.
caricature
His first impulse is invariably to theory which disturbs his complacent ignor-
which
assails
the
triumphant. the Resurrection.
of science. even to rise again.
not the
test of truth.
last. at microFor him the scopes.
of the Pauline epistles.
irresistibly
delivered at
Florence his lectures on Vedic Mythology. we need but ask the Archbishop and his German emulator.—
124
THE PROGBESS OF MYTHOLOGY
. he laughs best
who
laughs
We
have but to restate the mythological argument
in this
connection to
make
clear its real strength. .
gospels.
As thus
:
(l)
Jesus
is
but not in the original version of the first gospel and not in the second and not in the fourth and not in any writing or by any mouth known to or credited by the writers
said to be born of a Virgin
. (3) We come next to non-miraculous episodes which yet bear the mark of myth in that they are (a)
imposed on a
cult. he found the average
man
still
disposed to enjoy Whately and such skits on the mytho-
logists as that published
by Wackernagel
in 1856.
When
Professor
new doctrine is always De Gubernatis.
laugh at the scientific ance.
.
(b)
not
common
to
to
the four
Paulinists.
And
in
other matters. Lang admits myth The Massacre
(4)
the story of
of the
Innocents
by the same
tests. reducible to
unreality on various grounds. ridicule. whether they mean to suggest that there is nothing more miraculous in the life of Jesus than in the lives of Luther and Napoleon ? In fine. the Ascension. at Newton.
duplicates of episodes in previous hero-myths.
Die Himdchen von and the science
if
evolves. was not the Archbishop a little too
.
Even Mr. at Galileo.
But the
skit passes. at Darwin. at the geologists.

xviii. without additions. 31-44 Matt. Any man could set forth anything he would as the teaching of the
Messiah.
Cp. at others to be in the habit of explaining to them privately what the multitude cannot understand (Mark iv. 34. The decisive difference between the whole cast of the fourth gospel and that of the synoptics shows that invention was no less unrestrained as regards doctrine. are valid evidence. To make the whole mass the basis of a conception of a
1
See a
number
of other instances cited in the author's Short History of Freethought.
may have
Messianically uttered some
of these teachings
various periods.
The "Come unto me" formula has no congruity whatever with the main body of the narrative and is intelligible
.
125
and has none
of the characteristics of a
real discourse.
only as a formula of the mysteries. etc.
/.g. Matt. 1 17. xviii. 50 Matt. 15-36)
.
i. essay on "The Jesus Legend and the author's Studies in Beligious Fallacy.
and Luke ix. Matt.
218-9." in the
. 6. 30
. forty or more years later and that documents to which during a century anybody might add. 5. in an age Clearly this is the merest of habitual forgery. Many of the parables are similarly impossible as " teachings.).
. it can to-day find no credence among instructed men.
Predictions such as those of the
fall of Jerusalem are clearly Other teachings were as easy to
g. 10-16 Matt. .
c.
A
multitude of absolute contradictions of narrative in the text prove unrestrained invention e. xii.
blame them bitterly. presumably after the writing of the Pauline 2 epistles." The disciples themselves are represented as needing explanaand at times Jesus tions of parables (cp. . xiii.
written after the event. 43 Matt.. and xxi.
2
Myth of the Twelve Apostles.
All that can rationally be claimed
is
that a teacher or
teachers called
teachers
at
named
Jesus. 3 and xiii. or several differently
named
Messiahs. x. . xiii.
d.
interpolate. No scholar pretends to believe that all the speeches ostensibly reported in Livy and Thucydides were really delivered but though it is not recorded that any reports of Jesuine sayings existed in any form in Paul's time we are asked to believe that a multitude of Jesuine discourses delivered about the year 30 were accurately reproduced.
is
said to
e.
such body of reasons can be given for doubting a pagan narrative.
When any
fanaticism.—
THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
of written sayings. and verse 22.
. 54-58 and Luke iv.

fairies. the primacy of the Pope. the shooting of the apple on the head of by William Tell.
another.
.
named Freudenberger." the liquefaction
of the blood of St. at the end myth is but one of the primary modes
deceived
. the efficacy of prayer for
rain. The beliefs that Demeter wandered over the wide-wayed earth seeking for Persephone that Isis searched mourning for the body of Osiris that Apollo shot arrows of pestilence in punishment among the Greeks that Athene miraculously succoured her worshippers that Perseus and Jesus and a hundred more were supernaturally conceived that Jesus and Dionysos and Osiris gave men new knowledge and happiness in virtue of Godhood that Tezcatlipoca and Yahweh were to be appeased by the eating.
historical judgment.
—
medicinal value of charms. .. Galilean. undertook
to
show
its
source.
126
THE PBOGBESS OF MYTHOLOGY
is
teaching Jesus before Paul.
belief
. in reality or in symbol.
written centuries before the date assigned to Tell's exploit.
Jenny Geddes and her
stool. the miracles of
his child
mediums. .
. Arthur and the Bound Table.
. the couvade.
.
Julian's saying "
Thou hast conquered.
stages
and wherever the result is a widespread hallucination. Januarius. and should apply to it the same kind of tests.
The fortunes
of the Tell
myth may
serve once for
all to illustrate
the fashion in which a fiction can even in a historical period find
general acceptance
such a
and the time and effort required to dispossess by means even of the plainest evidence. the
episode being found in the Danish history of Saxo-Grammaticus.
. As early as 1598. a Swiss antiquary pronounced the story a fable and in 1760
. Boer outrages. the
credulity. O
Bruce's Cave. of human flesh and blood that iEsculapius and Jesus raised the dead that Herakles and Dionysos and Jesus went down to Hades. and returned that Jesus and Mithra were buried in rock tombs and rose again and that the sacrifice of Jesus brought salvation to mankind as did the annual sacrifice of the God-victim of the Khonds these beliefs were set up and cherished by the same faculties for fiction and fallacy as have conserved the beliefs about the Amazons.
as at the beginning
in
:
Primary
all
which men are
collectively
the habit of erroneous belief persists thus far in
. the miracles of Lourdes.
. witchcraft. transmitted from age to age through channels of custom and emotional
of civilization
we are dealing with the same kind of psychological problem.
Periodically repeated
. Wallace's Tree.
to ignore all the usual principles of
To put the case broadly.
said that Freudenberger
It is
was condemned
to be burned alive for his
pains
.
but this looks like yet another myth. and the consequent establishment of the
Swiss Confederation.

leaving popular opinion to develop as social and
wafer
. Cp.
THE STAND EOB THE BIBLE
by scholars.
E." do but proclaim their own immaturity.
127
resisted
by
learned Swiss historians on various untenable grounds down till the middle of the nineteenth century * and when the pressure of
criticism
at
last
it
capacity. The science of these conditions is indeed the most vital of all but the critical inquiry none the less must be followed up for its own sake.. and our general survey may fitly end in a consideration of one of the problems that arise for the mythologist on the borderline of the religious resistance. and that no trace of the Gessler episode occurs for generations after the time to which it is ascribed. 47. while the apple story is plainly myth and Tell a non-historical person. an accomplished scholar is found in all good faith to contend that. so it may pass on myths to less developed systems.
§ 5. being Do detected. Bordier.
religion
of the foregoing argument that any one any other with which it comes in contact that as Christism borrowed myths of all kinds from Paganism.g.
Swiss people.. the exposure was obstinately
. indeed. It would be strange if a set of myths round which centre the popular religious beliefs of Christendom were to be rectified more The great majority of the easily than the Swiss belief in Tell.
myriads more in their remoter myths will It remains for those who do care about reason and critical knowledge to pursue these ends faithfully notwithstanding. is " dead. Vieusseux.
The Problem of Priority. there is some
reason to believe that some disturbance occurred about the time in 2 question as if the reservation of such a proposition counted for
—
anything in such a connection. probably believe devoutly in the Tell story to this day. what we will. note.
. the pamphlet of M. however. being broached in the name not of orthodoxy but of historical science.
when
became irresistible by men of education and was shown past question that the Confederation
had been formally established a good many years before the date assigned to Tell.
economic conditions may determine. p.
1869. Le Griitli et Guillaume Tell. Geneve et Bale. myriads of "educated" English people will continue for generations to believe that their deity is present in a consecrated
. 1840. Hence a possibility
It lies
on the face
influence
may
1
2
History of Switzerland.
. so little do the studies and conclusions of scholars represent
popular opinion in any age
who
and those rationalists among ourselves go about proclaiming that Christian supernaturalism.
and the
faith of
continue proportionally vigorous.

If the historical data leave a given case in doubt.
the psychological probabilities
and. in terms of a posteriori evidence and a priori plausibility. As concerning Krishna. 262. that in earlier times Christianity was drawn upon here and there in the fashion formerly taken for granted by believers as regards all cases of coincidence between Christian and pagan narrative and practice. E.
It is not necessary to
is
Professor Bugge. we have to ask ourselves which
of dispute as to
Christian times
way
day
. Dr. H. that a little-esteemed Scandinavian
1882. The theses of Professors Weber and Lorinser and others in regard to Krishnaism (discussed at length hereinafter) are typical. and that their theses are always apt to be turned to the account of orthodox belief. then. on the other hand. H.Petersen. Meyer.
ask here whether or not any one of these writers
desire to buttress Christianity
it is
influenced
by a
quite conceivable that all alike
may
be indifferent to any such result.
It is easy to see
why
the
Christists adopted the belief in the Virgin Birth
and the solar
birth-
how
savages could acquire from
missionaries a belief in a punitive deluge. And
so great still is the effect of the so long unchallenged habit of treating Christianity as " absolute religion " that in the name even
of scientific
mythology there
Christianity in
is
a persistent tendency to look for
inde-
imitations of
myths that had been held by
pendent scholarship to be prior to Christian propaganda. Obviously such problems are to be solved. and others.
1
1
The
position
then.
early evidence for the
myth-
name. cited by W. Nicolson. trans.
Religion. p.
The point
is
that they are
apparently influenced by the old habit of treating the Christian
system as positively non-mythical. Petersen. p. Ger. in
But
there are less simple
which a variety of tests must be put as to the relative likelihood of a given myth's passing from A to B or from B to A.
tration that maintained in recent years
we may take up for illusby H. if at all.
though there
is.
the only evidence for
the tvorship being
late. E. Germanische Mythologie. Helsingf ors.
. Meyer. L. p. Wimmer. Putting
these theses aside for detailed treatment. 84
H. 103. 1892. Ueberden Qottesdienst des Nordens wahrend der Heidenzeit. we are told that " no certain traces are to be found of an actually
existing cultus " of the
God
in early times
is
. to see
lie. so concerning Balder. There is a curious correspondence in the line of argument in the two cases mentioned. Tylor has shown reason for believing that a deluge-myth was set agoing in Mexico by the early Spanish priests. Myth and
. as to a Christian derivation of the Scandinavian
myth
:
of Balder. It may be.128
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
whether a given heathen myth discovered in postis or is not borrowed from Christianity.
cases.

and the thesis was sustained by Von Schlozer in 1773.
1889. in his treatise
affected
on the Gylfa Ginning
Christian
2
in of
the Younger Edda. Bergmann. etc. 114. as
cited. of Strasburg. H. Both in the Elder and the Younger Eddas All this fairness and the elements are Christian or partially Christian splendour [of Balder's complexion and character] in Professor Bugge's opinion is only a reflection of the Son of God. so in descriptions Christ is spoken of as fairest of body.
that the swearing of the trees
and
plants." theological conceptions associated with Odin. Professor Bugge's general argument is thus summarized
:
"While the Balder myth includes in itself the most diverse elements main element is Christian. Chips from a German Workshop. notably that
So long ago. is derived
from
the Jewish anti-Christian Gospel of the Middle Ages. an admirer of the latter.
and other sagas is generally conceded. Voluspa: Bine Untersuclmng. p.. where the trees and bushes swear not to bear Jesus if he be crucified. ii.
5
. H. The rationalist Professor F. p. Such views were overborne for a time by the enthusiasm and nationalism aroused by the Brothers Grimm but E. but where Judas makes a cabbage-stump serve the purpose.]
who
. the Sepher Toldoth Jeschu. the White Christ as he has As Balder was depicted by an old Icelandic author as been named legendary and medieval purest white in the colour of his body.
Cp. Meyer. and the learned Jacob Grimm wrong. 195-6. again. as 1728. H. Among recent students some amount of Christian contact before the composition of the Voluspa
. it is not disputed that Christian and classic ideas probably some of the later aspects of Scandinavian paganism. 320. 1861. not to injure Balder.Thus Professor Rhys holds that the "prophetic" form in which part of the story is preserved 4 As regards the is "due to Christian and Biblical influence. and Dr. 3 argued for Christian and scholarly influence in the Voluspa Saga. Professor Bugge Longinus slaying Christ.
535. 1888. fully recognized a
old
modification
Scandinavian myths. 1-8.—
THE STAND FOE THE BIBLE
129
deity of old standing could be developed into a highly-esteemed one by grafting on his personality characteristics borrowed from Christism. p.
1
By Mr. and with golden yellow The blind Had [who threw at Balder the fatal mistletoe] is the hair
the
blind Longinus
that the Balder
legends "
[of
He concludes drove the spear into our Lord's side myth has been influenced by these medieval Christian Further. See E. Professor 5 Muller suggested Christian influence a generation ago.
Now. indeed.
2
3
4
La Fascination de Gulfi. 104.
Nicolson. p. excepting the mistletoe. And so on. as cited.
Hibbert Lectures on Celtic Heathendom. 1867.
suggests that Lucifer
is
the original of Loki
. the antiquarian Keysler of Loki. G. Petersen. declares himself bound to confess that the earlier and less scholarly inquirers were right. and by Adelung in 1797 and later.
pp. and this in face of Ohristist opposition and propaganda. Meyer.

1
2
3
. who contends in his elaborate treatise on the Voluspa that the Saga is a literary adaptation from some current Summa of Christian 6 "Whereas Bugge had argued with comparative diffidence theology. who had heard Christian and classical legends. 5 See also his Mythologie der Germanen. as by the Anglo. 466. and are the work of Latin scholars of the Middle Ages. 1883. p. p. etc. Bd. that Balder was first shaped after a classical model. that the Balder and Loki story in the Voluspa Saga.130
THE PKOGKESS OF MYTHOLOGY
Eydberg has shown that certain of the migration myths of the Heimskringla and the Younger Edda belong to the Christian period. 130) so summarizes Meyer as to make him seem to hold that the saga-poet had a Christian purpose. it was embraced by E. again. as regards the item Thus we are to suppose of Balder's consuming passion for Nanna. H. and that Balder himself is an adaptation from the White Christ this is a hypothesis And the more Protoo unplausible to pass without clear evidence. 267. Eng. the weaker do his evidences
—
seem. Deutsche Alter tumskunde. fessor Bugge's theory is examined.
and that Saxo-Grammaticus. must be said that such a proposition
raises acute sociological
difficulties. adaptation from an apocryphal Christian legend. 1903. E.
pile of
Among his
Balder
is
incidental conclusions are these
:
that the funeral
. 1 Dr. 294). Meyer decides
confidently that the
of the twelfth
poem
is
rather the
work
of a Christian priest
century belonging to one of the four theological
its
6
schools set up in Iceland after
whole
native
It
is
a literary mystification. Mullenhoff's most distinguished pupil. 65.Scandinavian Professor George Stephens/ and with less emphasis by Dr. Meyer. Cp. v. and finally designates the poem a Summa Christlicher Theologie (end). H. 454 sq. and by its pagan terminology to serve Christianity {Voluspa. is derived from Achilles. Vigfusson. Meyer really contends that the poem is not a "tendency" writing at all. 1883. sees a marked Christian colouring in the entire 2 But that the main episode in the Balder saga should be an myth. After being vigorously attacked by the German 3 archaeologist Mullenhoff. 1889. pp. 326-345. gathered by the Vikings. Nicolson (as cited. i. p. and later after a Christian and this on the score of some very remote or very
taken from that of Patroklos.
normal parallels.
myths at all. In the hands of Professor Bugge's adherents. 1883. tr. p. 4 Professor Bugge's Studies in Northern Mythology shortly examined. which is older than that in the Edda. 220). the theory is pushed still further. being unfitted by its Christian ideas to serve Paganism. heathen in basis. ii. 6 Mr. was worked up by a heathen poet. Still he speaks of the "entirely Christianized (ganz verchristlichten) Balder and Hoder" (p. Eydberg.
Christianization and that the not a genuine reproduction of
. 39. Corpus Poeticum Boreale.
Unless the priest-poet of the twelfth century were a
Teutonic Mythology. in
the picture given of the
Homer
God
in
.

as
distinct
from simple unbelief. So far
as
names
1
of persons
and places show. he must have been either a Christian or a Now. Petersen. It is one thing is but a substitution of a great difficulty for a small.
p.
to lend
literary attractions to the story of a
:
new
besides a
number
of possible Celtic originals or parallels for the
3
name and
of
character of Loki.
. might not a Balder1
worshipper desire to raise the new cult on the ruins of the old ? But Dr. as to what any one "heathen " poet would want to do. cited. in which triumph is ascribed only to Balder and Hoder and " insignificant beings such as Hoenir " " how could
—
a real heathen poet have the heart to deny the new glory to his old Gods Odin. p. as
Id. as cited. as we shall see. Meyer takes no account of the Celtic parallels to the Balder myth.
H. conclusion of the poem.
. Meyer. stand for the
their
body
myth common
this
all
to the
Aryan peoples before
divergence. Mythologie der Germanen.a
THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
Pagan." really exorbitant such a " Ratselgedicht. Now. pp. and there gives rise to a similar dispute. to grant that the slain and beloved Balder of the poetic Edda is a marked aesthetic advance on the Balder of Saxo's "history": it is another thing to explain both the mythical and the literary development in the fashion under notice. H. Meyer. just as there is 2 a plausible mythic equation.
a greater improbability than that any of the aspects of the saga
" How. who had no importance in the cultus?" question. to begin with. 42. and in their place bring in other younger This begs the Gods.
2 Celtic
4
Heathendom.
is
131
highly-evolved skeptic." asks Dr. and Frey. the
1903. pointing to the should be pagan work. Meyer's challenge further recoils upon himself.
p. 84
E. once more. 282-304. and so to give heathenism the greater glory ? The thesis is Dr. the existence of an impartial artistic skepticism. so far as
they
may
indicate identities. Thor. Meyer's conception of such a " mystification. Gwydion = Woden = Indra. der Germanen.
But against
not figure at
difficulty
view there stands the difficulty that Balder does prominently in the old Scandinavian worship
—
which. 466. arises in the same fashion in the 4 case of Krishna." on the part of a medieval Icelandic priest. in such an environment at that period. With all his learning. 538-542. pp.
chief
God
3
of
Scandinavian
Mythol. Assume
that the poet
was a
believing Christian priest
:
was ever such a one
known
heathen God. as Professor Rhys has shown.
In Professor Rhys's opinion such
parallels. Given a special devotion to Balder. Dr. there is a whole group of parallels between the Celtic Cuchulainn and Balder. And here. there is to be charged on the innovating theorists a lack of comprehensiveness of survey.

So far as such a problem can be speculated upon from the outside. duplicating one or two figures in the Christian As hitherto system. 4 Cp. :
alike apparently late literary developments.. 83.
Skirnir
A
. 314). between the northern mythology and that of the Vedas. That theory is that the germinal force which wrought the remarkable poetic evolution in Iceland was contact with 7 the Celtic literary culture of Western Britain and Ireland a culture resulting from the long-standing Celtic institution of bardism. 89 sq. Icelandic Literature in the Encyclopcedia Britannica. by H. Eng. just as a Krishna myth was probably ancient among the pre. & Sons. Eydberg. § 36. 101. myths were never made in that fashion. see a very careful essay. 76. 652. and that these were poetically developed. 6te Aufl. Not that the negative evidence against the Balder cultus is conclusive. p. 94. Teutonic Mythology. . 133-4.Aryan Dravidians in India for though Balder names are scarce in Scandinavia they appear to survive in 9 And when such parallels exist as Eydberg has shown Germany. 101. Far less unlikely is the assumption that. 1887. Cp. ch. Id. etc. On the possible significations of the name see also Simrock. 9 Grimm. pp. Nicolson. xi. originally lacking or left rudimentary in Scandinavia. 271-282. cited by Nicolson. we are not entitled in advance to disallow a single figure in the former as a
. p. p. 1899). Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie. too. Introd. 1871. the English Frea " (Professor Bugge's
1
2
Chadwick (Clay
Studies Examined. p. Eng. the saga-poet or poets created a whole series of new imaginary figures. See the article on As to Slavonic influence on Scandinavian mythology. by the common consent of Holtzmann. but also that this Goddess was at first one and the same with the God Froy or Frey. Celtic derivation of the Balder myth is suggested by N. 3 Petersen. 87. again. As to the original cast of Odin.111. Meyer as cited by Nicolson. 90-97. pp. 90.
5
6 7
8
tr. 21-71.
—
. and Eydberg. tr. understood. Such a contact could account for many of the mythic parallels noted by 8 Professor Ehys. M. the solution seems to lie obviously through the theory of Professors Vigfusson and Powell as to the general development of 6 Icelandic literature. Nordisk Mythologi. A Balder myth may conceivably have flourished among a stratum of the northern population that had been conquered by the Thor worshippers. Teutonic Mythology. M. to begin with. see Bergmann. seems to have been the Sun-God alongside of Thor and.
Odin's supremacy and Balder's prestige being
2 3
Freyr. there were pagan mythical personages with some of the characteristics under notice. 5 For Dr. pp. the solution in every case is imitation of Christianity that is to say. 402-7. The Cult of Othin. Petersen. 74-5. pp. Le
Message de
et les Bits de Grimnir. Bergmann. Professor Stephens writes: "Even as to Frigg herself.132
THE PEOGEESS OF MYTHOLOGY
1
paganism was Thor. it is certain not only that Frigg and Froya were originally one deity. pp.
Petersen. the figure of Harbard in the sagas is identical with that of Loki. p. Heimdal in the Edda has many of Balder's characteristics 4 just as. Here again we have blank unverisimilitude. Meyer.

refinement of the Balder story
1
133
as the aesthetic
But inasmuch
one of the main grounds of the play of the Celtic literary influence is an adequate latter theory. p. 139. Meyer why connect with Fair and Balder.
doubtless. 327 sq.
As
Professor
Ehys has pointed
out.
But against the whole theory
of
derivation there stands the difficulty that the alleged coincidences are so remote. Teutonic Mythology.
THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
medieval copy from Christianity. Cp. might carry with
it
concrete
Christian
Christian elements. 1882.
The
Celtic influence. and Grimm. But how could such a manipulation promote an acceptance of the Christian creed ? There is no Christianity is in no way advantaged by the poem.
mourning
Christist. should not Loki be traced if to any remote source to the Egyptian Set. as cited. As regards the which Professor Bugge thinks must be of Christian into 3 derivation. a Batselis
gedicht. H. is taken from the name Apollo then should not classic sun-myths also have reached the North. is a flout to all psychological probability. and the Holy Spirit as the water flowing therefrom. whereas the theory of a literary mystification. 32. again. 120-1. i. " Summa of Christian theology. who
in the spring. which Dr. it is part of the normal sun-myth. p.. G.
. Meyer."
:
—
—
1
Cp. tr. 4 Citations by Nicolson.
cults of the pre-Christian Southern world
than with the
Eead
as a sun-myth. and is obscurely present even in that of Apollo. the story
it is
is
tolerably transparent
as an imitation of Christian theology
truly a Bdtselgedicht. supposing them not to have been primary ? Why. Professor Bugge thinks that the South-Teutonic God-name Fol. Petersen. as there is no cross.
La Fascination de Oulfi
{Oylfa Ginning)."
is
a misnomer
:
what
his evidence really suggests
is
an imitation not
of the Christian theology but of the cosmology and the mythology. Balder's death is not the salvation sacrifice. Myth.
2
3
For an interpretation see F. the detail that
Balder cannot return
until all nature weeps for his loss is a very close notation of the fact that the sun " returns " in strength only when the winter frosts thaw
descent bedewing the whole earth. Dr. Rydberg.
1861.
p. der Germ. like the other statues. Now. and in respect of the alleged connection of the admittedly ancient myth of the hiding of Odin's eye in the fountain
with ecclesiastical views of God as an Eye.
hell. as cited. Nicolson. p. Christ as a fountain. 104-119. and the sorrow that of men but a sad catastrophe among the Gods prevails until his return connects far more obviously with the
. pp. Meyer's phrase.. p. suggests an image imported from the south.
of the
The theology is present only in the parallels to the apocalyptic lore Dark Ages.
See hereinafter. § 16. Cp. Rydberg and Dr. 82. 464. Eng. 5 In the ancient description of the temple of Upsala by Adam of Bremen the figure of the God Freyr is said to be represented cum ingenti priapo. the explanation. Christ and Krishna. This. Bergmann.

note. and is duly punished therefor.
i. from the tears of which issued mankind . Eng. this though the pyre is specifically northern. though Dr.
while. Handbook
ed. and O. however. tr. and
fit
:
Canon MacCullocb.
Whence came
Jeschu
?
the late cabbage-stalk story in the Sepher Toldoth
and
How
?
came the myth
of
the blind Longinus into
all
Christian lore
Parts of the Sepher are in
probability of late
medieval origin. p. "is also found among the Scandinavians. Stephens. who plays no such part? And. rather than to Lucifer.
. Muller. 1882. as there cited. Professor Bugge holds to have been suggested by the transmitted story of Patroklos and Achilles.
6
105. 34 but the soldier does not become blind in any legend before the
ninth century. the name Longinus may very well be evolved from the spear.
tr.
. But what of the pyre of the Sun-God Herakles. 5 Cp. 5
soldier
How
did that
myth
originate?
It is quite con-
ceivable that the medieval Christians should adopt the idea that the
who thrust the spear was blind. of the Egypt. 4 Robertson Smith. notes that the Persian myth of the bridge which the righteous cross into Paradise. Before even the Vikings. p. of John xix.* seeing also that 2 the old Egyptian race is held to be an offshoot from the Aryan. Eng.
2
of Egyptian Beligion. we have seen.. All the
.. and had to be guided to the by others but on this view the hint had to be given them." and adds " Perhaps the two conceptions had a common source in some ancient Aryan myth of the world beyond the grave " (Religion. Bugge's Studies on Northern Mythology. Tiele. p. as cited. Eng. Professor
Bugge has never asked the obvious
questions. 12 Renouf. seeing that the movable Eye of Odin. 28 sq. which probably gave the motive? Bugge's theory is that the Christian matter in the myth came through the wandering Vikings. Belig.. tr. hidden in the fountain.
Hibbert Lectures. 54. while the wicked fall off into realms of torment. 4 and what of the primary phenomenon of sunset. As regards the other myth.
653. 353. why 3 should not the Voluspa myth in that regard pass for non-Christian ? Such an item as Balder's funeral pyre.
2nd
3
to allege that tbis essay denies tbe possibility of Christian influences in non-Christian mythology. Hist.
. that the Sun-God should be slain by a blind brother=the Darkness or the Winter and as the northern story turns in the later form upon the magical character of the mistletoe. p. wbo bas seen
Nicolson. Rydberg holds that Had or Hoder in the primary form of the Scandinavian myth had not been blind. Professor G. connects much less obviously with Christian theology than with the wonder-working eye of Ra.
Teutonic Mythology.
134
THE PROGRESS OE MYTHOLOGY
compasses the death of Osiris. Teutons had reached the Graeco-Roman world and thereby hangs the question whether northern myths may not thus at different times have had an entrance into the lore of the south. longche. on mythological grounds. Now. Beligion of the Semites. 1883.
1
Erman. we are almost driven to conclude that there was a
act
. p. 155). p. 6 it is very credible.

it should be noted that in the preChristian cults of Attis. p. 220 Simrock. 18-22. 1844. 656. Stephens. and that
the Scandinavian
consuming love
of the
God-name Sun-God
the probable original meaning of 9 Above all. for the Christian narrative.
southerly Teutons. p. p. as cited on p. . 1 It does not follow that the been introduced? Christians got their idea from the Balder story as we now have it but the obvious presumption is that a pagan myth preceded theirs and such a myth may have been current among the Irish Celts. pp.
3
A
Celto-Britannic origin would seem to be the
solution. Rydberg. v. Grimm. 339.
Again.
THE STAND FOR THE BIBLE
sun-slaying
135
Why else should the of some sort to start with. 391.
Agni in the Rig. whose cult was fabled to have come from
. as to veneration of the mistletoe
. and Osiris there are similar pheno-
mena. I 8 Cp. Deutsche Alter tumskunde. be as fair as the Greek Sun-God Apollo. finally. Rydberg.
In
2
its
earlier form. Pausanias. pp. and K. Ottfried Muller. which do account
So. Nicolson.
5 Rhys. 401-6.
„
. 125. der Germ. c.
4
weeping of the Mother-Goddess Frigg over the slain Balder. i. Celtic Heathendom.
when
mark
Professor Bugge seeks a Christian origin for the
for the derision of Professor Stephens. as cited. Mtillenhoff. the
death-dealing
weapon
. Compare the comments of Hermann Muller. bk. p. who had contacts alike with northern paganism and southern Christianity. p. with the idea that Christ was fair-haired. ft. 56-7. common-sense apart. identified with the Sun-God Grannos and Sirona. and his mother.
when we know
that the
it
title
Lord was given
to
many
pre-Christian Gods. 4. 7 Why then seek a medieval source for the whiteness of 8 Balder? And if Balder is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning Lord. p. 9 Bergmann. 447. But. too. 5.
.
is
the sword Mistiltein. 29.
suggest the mistletoe
but then the mistletoe
is
This would at once unknown in Iceland
and
in
Sweden. why are we to assume that it was never applied to a Teutonic God
the hyperboreans?
. Mythol. 5 are borrowed from the Christian Madonna and Child. 24.
6
before Jesus. Adonis. 22. Sun-God of a fair-haired race. i. x. as to the reasoning involved. Le Message de Skirnir. Teutonic Mythology.Veda is white. as cited. Das nordische Griechenthum und die urgeschichtliche Bedeutung des nordwestlichen Europas. The Dorians. . Whence came it ? Conceivably from golden-haired Apollo but then why should not the hyperborean Balder.. 123 and Meyer.
„. why should the Freyr?
is
for
Nanna be
held to need any
literary derivation at a late period
i
from Oenone ?
2 3
4
among the more
6
Cp. pp. But cp. son of the Matron"). he
gives a fair
As well
might he argue that the Mabon Mab Modron ("the boy. In this way. might be explained the entrance of
myth
mistletoe have
the mistletoe into the
northern myth. and drives white horses and Professor Rydberg finds his traits reproduced in Heimdal. ii. 655.

Etymology.
and the
effort
towards
if
the progress of research. as regards every species of mythological problem.
it
. is best to be gathered from a detailed examination of the claim made. in its present terminology. It is too much to hope that so vast a growth can be speedily interpreted with and many a special research must be made scientific certainty
—
. solarism. symbolism.136
THE PROGRESS OF MYTHOLOGY
When
. is demonstrably an adaptation of a mass of pre-Christian myths. the influence of art. astronomy. there is in all cases a special ground for doubt as to its being an original for a myth
found among a semi-civilized people.
But at co-ordination we must be made pari passu with the latter is not to become unintelligent
is possible. is thus far a very ill-established and recalcitrant hypothesis. phallicism.
before a decisive co-ordination
must aim
and
. The complete justification such a doubt.
Meantime. the vegetation principle. the pseudo-historical influence of Evemerism. as already mentioned. which only remotely and in externals compare with the Christian. however. No single clue will lead us through the maze.
sterile. on a more comprehensive study of relations than is hitherto made by any one school.
all is said. the problem of priorities doubtless remains but enough has been said to show that the confident inference of Christian sources for northern myths. all play their part in namely. the religious elucidating what it concerns us to elucidate systems of the world in their mythological aspect. studied hereinafter. we have seen reason to insist. And as the whole
obscure
Christian legend. in regard to
for
the
myth
of Krishna.

CHRIST AND KRISHNA
The Problem of Priority.
1
The views of Professor Weber. 119. October. " It is the opinion of the best Indianists. 66. 2 " There can be no true objective criticism until a man stands more or less indifferent to the result. but the question as to
everybody
else. because he preceded him by four or five centuries. Mitchell's Hinduism. have naturally been welcomed less fully endorsed by many Christian writers. J. Dr. pp. Carpenter's acceptance of the pro-Christian view on the historical question typifies the attitude of Christian scholarship. divided on the historical issue. Were it shown that another cult borrowed.
§
1. however largely.
and more or
:
1847. he would be in no sense put out. 72. missionary and other.
on the
historical data.PART
II. See. have. and this confessedly second-hand opinion he immediately erects into a certainty " Christ can owe nothing to Krishna. 1885. Past and Present. article on Hindu Monism. art. " that the worship of Krishna did not arise until the fifth or sixth century of our era". 1892. 29-35. p.
making
errors of assumption
and errors
of inference in the course of
an attempt to
does
like
it
settle priority in a particular
way
.
137
. in Nineteenth Century." he writes. he is discussing. in my opinion. who is most likely to be impartial.
Eationalists
are thus far
he is free to reason and so may arrive at just conclusions. inasmuch as they will not be affected by any result of the particular investigation." Baur. partly
the evidence. Mr. 1880. What is now Some rationalists in hand is a question of priority of myth forms. 79. in The Monist. pp. on The Obligations of the New Testament to Buddhism. for instance. hereinafter discussed. partly because of But in the case of the
because of
the uncertainty of
differences or oversights of logical method. J. not the truth of any religion. gone astray over the problem under notice. Kritische Untersuchung ilber die kanonischen Evangelien. by Professor Richard Garbe. Carpenter apparently regards Krishna as a historical character. M. from the Christian.
the two main disputants in Inasmuch as this controversy. 1881. pp.
but the detection
of these errors does not settle the point of priority. Major Jacobs' Manual of Hindu Pantheism. of
which
justly
religion first developed certain beliefs." Mr.
methods. it is he.
The
record and the Krishna
rationalist
long-debated issue of the historic relation between the gospel myth 1 would seem to be one on which the
may hope to reach a scientific conclusion by critical His general principles are in no sense at stake. Estlin Carpenter.
And while
the Naturalist.
affect the
and much
less
comparative principle. is fallible. p. December. 971-2. and frees himself as far as possible from all subjective relations to the object of criticism.

§ 10. for an a priori theological reason. and must finally
decided beforehand.
that
under the restrictions
of scientific principle
and
logical law. On such lines no sound critical results can be reached. Ueber die Krishnajanmdshtami (Krishna's Geburtsfest) in Abhandlungen der KonigAkademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. 1867. iii and vi (1874-7). 311. founding even then on two previous writers. Das Leben Jesu. The alternative terms myth or legend. one Father Cassianus Maceratensis.
Cyclopaedia article.
This special question of priority has long been before scholars. Major Cunningham believes that the worship of Krishna is only a corrupt mixture of Buddhism and Christianity.a
138
disputant
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
who
sets out
with a
belief in the
complete historic truth
is
of the Christian religion.
He
strengthen the Naturalist position
if
that position be really scientific. cited
by Weber. implying respectively the absence and the presence of some personal basis or nucleus for the legends of the Hindu and Christian Incarnations. in so far as it
makes super-
Thus
him every question
as far as possible
overwhelmingly biassed to the view that any "myth" which resembles a Christian "record" is borrowed from that and if. or whether there is any historical connection whatever between them. for the subversion of both religions in India.
1762. whether the Krishna myth or legend is in whole or in part derived from the Christ myth or Jesus legend. as is pointed out by Professor Albrecht Weber in his 2 exhaustive study of the Krishna Birth-Festival. in his Alphas betum Tibetanum.
See on this point of terminology Strauss. Einleit. vols. and was a sort of compromise intended In point of fact. pp.
1
2
lichen
3
Rome. in some instances.
p. as we shall see in the sequel.
. referred to in the
As early as 1762 Father Giorgi.
He
holds his
own
religion to be supernatural
and
is
true." etc. In Balfour's Cyclop&dia of India. it is still. the Christian theory is much older than the middle of the nineteenth
—
—
century. 253-263. miracles
and
all.
1
leave us quite free in our treatment of the historic facts
is. any permanent results it attains are pure gain to human science. and not for simple historical reasons.
. or vice versa. he repels that conclusion.
We wish to know.
and every
other to be merely
natural claims. But whereas the rationalist inquiry is in this connection logically free of presuppositions.
impartiality
impossible. Translated piecemeal in Indian Antiquary. in the article " Krishna " somewhat rambling and ill-digested compilation it is stated that " since the middle of the nineteenth century several learned men have formed the opinion that some of the legends relating to Krishna have been taken from the life of Jesus Christ. discussed the question at length.
human and
for
is
false.
—
free. then.

note. p. The narratives.
6 7
Buddha with
Indian Antiquities. pp. 1810. Giorgi held. It has been pointed out {Bible Folk Lore. . as cited. T. adding that the name of the female 4 Other propadeity Saraswati was only a corruption of Sarah. he declared the geographical name to be derived from the scriptural Judah GomatI from Gethsemane the name Arjuna from John. 240. ii. Works.. Italy. 110) that Abraham's oak compares with Brahma's tree. But long before Giorgi. especially from the
But his theory did not end there. and
—
citations
by him. and Sir William's shocked protest did not hinder his disciple. 8 An English translation of his work on Ceylon. 9 Cited by Maurice. 806. and long 2 before Hyde. had been got from
the apocryphis
libris
de rebus Christi Jesu. As early as 1672 the 8 Dutch missionary and trader Balde (Baldaeus) maintained a number of the propositions supported in our own generation by Professor Weber (who does not refer to him) namely. the prophet Daniel" (H. 325. 317).
.
gandists. Indian Antiquities. Vishnu. 1552. 31.
again.
1 Historia Beligionis Veterum Persarum.
—
the massacre of the innocents. Nor was this all. Yudhishthira. etc. 1700. a corruption of the very
name
of the Saviour
whose deeds had been impiously debased by inexpressibly wicked impostors. History of Hindostan. p. H. Yadava. 330. i. ib. that there is a very remote and secondary connection between the Abraham myth and the religion of India.
. cited by the Eev. and v. Durvasas from Peter.). 272. 1793. 1884. a doctrine which they have preserved ever since the time of the apostles " (Kerr's
Id.
Sousa (17th
Collection of Voyages. 322 (should be 382 paging twice repeated). ii. and Mahesa were no other than the Christian Trinity". and India : in Asiatic Researches. 3 Maurice. the English Orientalist Hyde. and worship the Blessed Virgin. 130. p. scandalized Sir William Jones by assuring the Hindus that they were " almost Christians. 323 (383). 1812. etc. Thomas Maurice. the Rev.
139
All three
the other the French Orientalist name " Krishna "
De Guignes
(the elder). says the Portuguese historian De Faria y cent. The absurdity lies in the assumption that Brahmanism derives from the Hebrew Scriptures. 1798. 228). was published in the eighteenth century in Churchill's collection of travels.
9
etc. The Rajputs. the derivation of parts of the Krishna myth from the Christian stories of the birth of Jesus. ii. and so on. 1893. of course. Postel had declared the name of Brahma to be a corruption of Abraham a view which appears to have been common 3 among Mohammedans and Catholic missionaries early expounded this discovery among the Hindus. Wilson. 2 In his commentary on Abrahami Patriarchce liber Jesirah. iii. 5 On the Gods of Greece.
was only nomen ipsum corruptum
Christi Servatoris.. vi. 785.THE PEOBLEM OE PBIORITY
held that the
Christ. because their Brahma. etc. Maurice.
writings of the Manichaeans. "acknowledge one God in three persons. from speaking of the " almost Christian 6 theology" of Brahmanism. The Indian epic-names Ayodhya. p. 25. On the problem of the origin and meaning of the name Brahma see Professor Max Muller's Gifford Lectures on Psychological Religion.
1
—
. vol. It may be.
" Writers are found to identify 4 Moor's Hindu Pantheon. Maurice's general contention being that the Indian and all other Triad systems were vestiges of an 7 original pure revelation. ii.

2 Id. and resenting its being raised. 273." (On the Gods of Greece.
decided that the triumph of Krishna over the serpent Kaliya (whose
head he is represented crushing under his foot. observed that he "willingly believed that the
Christian for a Christian presupposition. and probably to the 2 And in the same treatise time of Homer. p. 445. who. and the general outline of his story."
to
announce that
" the
"
could not be "
seeing in the
Hebrew
Scriptures the earliest of
all
religious lore.
were long anterior to the birth of our Saviour. and the wildest part
of
them repeated
to the
Hindus.
who
ingrafted
1
them on the
old
fable of Cesava.
274. and whose head the saviour of
mankind was
to crush."
Thus
far
when Volney
Christ from
both sides had proceeded on a priori principles in his Ruines (1791) implicitly derived the
. 4 Mythologie des Indous.
[Krishna] fable did not
Gospels. Sir William Jones in 1788 suggested that " the spurious gospels which abounded in the first
ages of Christianity had been brought to India. Maurice constantly aims at repelling the criticisms of Volney and other sceptics. we know very certainly. always begging the question.
i. 147. and India) the scholar took occasion
adamantine pillars of our Christian faith moved by the result of any debates on the comparative antiquity of the Hindus and Egyptians. was to be dated " a thousand and more
.140
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
Following this line of thought.
and
name
Krishna (misspelt) he was but substituting an antiA comparatively scientific position was first taken up by the German Kleuker. 152
. the Indian theology.
3
6
Sy sterna Brahmanicum. the Apollo of Greece".
. on the other hand.
years before the birth of Christ." but
that
first
arise
it
out
of
these [Apocryphal]
nevertheless
might
have derived " some
1
Asiatic Researches. or of any inquiries into 3 Still later. Italy.
cited
by Weber.
In the same spirit. discussing Paulinus' polemic. the French Orientalist Polier. this after the statement: " That the name of Crishna. and which at times.
."
4
These writers had of course taken it for granted that all heathen resemblances to Jewish and Christian stories must be the result of heathen imitation but on equally a priori grounds other Christian writers argued that the " impure " cult of Krishna could never have been derived from Christianity and the view spread that the Indian myths were of much greater antiquity than had been supposed the 5 Carmelite monk Paulinus (really Werdin or Wesdin) surmising that the legendary war.
. cited by Weber. Rome. pp. i. is seen biting his heel) was " a travesty of the
tradition
of
the serpent-tempter
who
introduced death into the
world. with which was connected the story of Vishnu's incarnation in Krishna.
1791.

which has measured the lives of its mythic
heroes by millions of years. in his great work. Eng.000 years old. has multiplied time in its traditions as wildly as it has multiplied action in its legends.
It
of a far later redaction
than had
once been supposed. 3te Aufi. unparalleled in its disregard of fact and its range of exaggeration. i. F.
5 See Colebrooke in Asiatic Researches. cited by Weber.
On
tion of Christian priority has been in a general
the other hand. which was one of the first weighty criticisms of the early assumptions of Orientalists. no history
in
Indian literature at
.000 years 6 Of this delirium of speculamultiplied by six times seventy-one.)
2
Hindu Pantheon. 398-9. however.
—
Osiris. . . 70. but on the contrary throwing out some new heterodox suggestions. History of Ancient Philosophy. certainly not 3. set aside the supposed Christian parallels. and probably to "2 this while saying nothing to countenance the the time of Homer theory of later borrowing from Christianity. 69.
tion. iv. i. ix. (Tbe work is a translation. Riga.320. See a number of samples of this disease of imagination cited by Buckle.
All
early
historical
traditions
are
untrustworthy but no other people ever approached the flights of fancy of the Hindu mind. is
doubtless that of
of nature in
Buckle
—the influence
p. .
Symbolik. by J. Krishna story was the earlier became for a time the more general but in 1810 we do find It is doubtful whether this was so one. the case in favour of the assumpway strengthened by
the precise investigation of
that
Hindu
is
literature. despite
all
cavils. an antiquity exceeding 4. the view that the matter" from them. the true explanation.
§ 2. is judicial
3
4
and reasonable.
based on documents. i. tr. 135-7. .
5
capable Orientalists that there
all.
Age of Indian Documents.
as
it
stands. 200.AGE OF INDIAN DOCUMENTS
141
1 According to Weber. 116.
which has gone
to
show
much
of
it. ii. following Jones. 42. the English Orientalist Moor." measureless imagination of India. 3-vol.
of the most uncertain was indeed admitted by the properly speaking. Later the German 3 mythologist Creuzer. declaring it to be "very certain " that Krishna's " name and the general outline of his story were long anterior to the birth of our Saviour. and pointed rather to the Egyptian myth of
. ed. with the
result that its history is likely to
of all that are
first
remain one
It
is. and assigned to the Institutes of Menu.
of
overwhelming manifestations
1 Abhandlungen iiber die Geschichte und Alterthiimer Asiens. cited by Weber. of papers from the Asiatic Researches. 1797. Ficb. Hitter's whole argument. 6 Jones in Asiatic Researches.
literature are so
many works
has been truly said by Eitter that in no to be found to which a remote origin
4
The has been assigned on insufficient grounds as in the Indian. with notes and comments by Kleuker.
. 1838.

. He wrote a work on India. See them all translated by Dr. from the collection of Schwanbeck. in Rhys Davids' Buddhism. was known in India before the third century B. and in the Indian Antiquary..C. tr. 1877. condensed from Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology. about 250 B.
whether paper. 500-1." 3
Brahmano
period
to
Muller's
unscientific
. Appendix i. pp. bark. however. 4 One of the generals of Alexander the Great. Cp. more than this. as cited. In view of the antiquity of literary habits in other parts of Asia. When the documents are examined. Outlines of the History of Ancient Religions. rep. McCrindle in the Indian Antiquary. vol.) 5 both state that the Indians did not write their laws but the latter speaks of inscriptions upon mile-stones.
Professor
Max
is
Muller
:
" There
no mention
of writing materials. in Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian.
who complains
of this. Ancient India as Described in Classical Literature. 5 Greek ambassador from Seleucus Nicator to the Indian king Sandracottus (Chandragupta) about 300 B. McCrindle (last vol.] all the evidence we can get would lead us to suppose that even then. vol. Interesting extracts are given in Max Muller's Introduction to the Science of Religion. about 600 or 800 B. pp. . it may well turn out that the
. to
. there being reason to doubt whether the
practice
of writing in India dates
many
centuries earlier.—
142
—
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
1
stimulating imagination and stunning the sceptical reason. J.
division
of
Indian historical
:
periods
is
somewhat
view as
but Tiele. W.C. See them in Asiatic Society's Journals. 6 Outlines. too. the step
startling
.C. iii. 220-8. in which objects are multiplied and transformed. according to the Professor's division. Only fragments of his account of his voyage on the Indian coast are preserved. 6. we have only the fragments preserved by later historians. On the general question of the antiquity of writing it was long ago remarked by Jacob Bryant that " The Romans carried their pretensions to letters pretty high. ed. as of that of Nearchus. cannot be taken as settled. pp.) 4 and Megasthenes (300 B. and registered the priestesses of Argos" (Holwell's Mythological Dictionary. of which. p. 1901) constitute a great service to historical study. and the Helladian Greeks still higher yet the former marked their years by a nail driven into a post and the latter for some ages simply wrote down the names of the Olympic victors from Corsebus. 259). viii and xii in Wheeler's History of India. and the waking perception of time is superseded. published by Dr.C.
. vols. Tiele.C. 5. p.
older records being found. 244. though the art of writing began to be known.
and
it
down to documentary was not unnatural that skepticism should
it turns out that the oldest Indian inscriptions yet found are not three centuries earlier than the 2 Nor does there seem to be a probability of much Christian era. accepts his
to the introduction of the art of writing
"Nearchus (325 B.e. 23. All are copiously annotated.C. From this it is evident that writing. Calcutta. to say nothing of
the fancies of the Brahmans. 1882.
be carried to extremes. vi and vii (1877-8)."
6
1 Possibly. or
the Indian Diaskeuasts [editors] collected the songs of their Rishis [poets or seers] nor is there any allusion to writing during
. 121. the partly entranced state of mind cultivated by Hindu sages may involve a repetitive brain process analogous to that seen in dreams. but was applied only rarely. 1793. vi. p. if at all. even during the Sutra period [600 to 200 B. probably of Phoenician origin.] Nay.C. Constable. The question as regards India. the whole literature of India was preserved by oral tradition only.
Says
skins. 3 History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature. and the former mentions letters written on cotton.
From
facts is
in turn
even a moderate calculation of Indian antiquity. Eng.. 1877. June.
at the time
when
the whole of the
down
[i. 2 Those of king Asoka.
literature. This and the other five vols.

work cited. Tiele's "only rarely. religio-philosophical treatises.
And
the practice of oral transmission
has survived. tr.
no one disputes that the Vedas are
main
of extremely ancient composition (the oldest portions being at least
three thousand years old.
. 'Brahmanism has kept to the last to its primitive tools.
—
estimates above cited are too low. He tells (De Bello Gallico. 304. whereas in the other the
facility of transcription
permitted of
many
errors. and a few vessels of wood" (Barth. religious. 1 Miiller.
and
were transmissible
and the lack
of letters did not at all necessarily involve loss.' How then was the Veda learnt? It was learnt by every Brahman during twelve years of his studentship or Bramacharya. 14) that many entered the Druid discipline. p. those also who defile them. if at all. Tiele. ii.E. originated at more or less distant periods before our era.
of a great
body
of very ancient utterance. Taylor's work on The Alphabet.
and theology. invariably learn them from oral tradition.
. learning orally a great number of verses some remaining in pupillage as long as twenty years and this though writing was freely used for secular purposes. p. For a discussion of these see I. This description corresponds remarkably with Caesar's account of the educational practices of the Druids. 501-3.
. 123. its turf-clods and grass-blades. 2 Barth. 6.
the young
Brahmans who
when MSS. learning a little day after day. repeating what they have learnt as part of their daily devotion The ambition to master more than one subject is hardly known in India In the Mahabharata we read. Eng." 1
' '
:
§ 3.' Kumarila [800 C. 129).
"
Even
at the present day." makes rather too little of the Greek testimony. Modern European parallels will readily suggest themselves. the prestige of ancient custom. 1883. its penthouses of bamboo.
no other way In all
probability ancient unwritten compositions were often as accurately
transmitted as early written ones. sa. which in other religions made priests continue to use stone knives long after metal ones were invented. The Religions of India. though probable. vi. learn the songs of the Vedas and the Brahmanas
and the Sutras.
and
accidental interpolations. are neither scarce nor expensive. They spend year after year under the guidance of their teacher. p. omissions. Caesar offers as explanation the wish to keep sacred lore from the many.] says That knowledge of the truth is worthless which has been acquired from the Veda. and possibly
large part even of the literature of
much more)
2
. Outlines. shall go to hell. and the Upanishads. if it has been learnt from writing or been received from a Sudra. and learn them by heart.
The Special Documents. pp. and even those who write them. We have seen that Miiller makes even the Sutra period that of the composition of manuals for public and
treatises of ritual
Brahmanas.
THE SPECIAL DOCUMENTS
But
all this is
143
perfectly compatible with the oral transmission
All early compositions. is only one of many conflicting hypotheses. Comp. and the desire to strengthen the faculty of memory.
in
historical. We may add.
poetic. The Phoenician origin of the Indian alphabets. Those who sell the Vedas. just because in the former case there was a severe discipline of memory. in regard alike to Druids and Brahmans. too.
and that a
as the
commentary upon them.
in the
In point of
fact..

in and it simply makes Krishna
the voucher of
1
advanced pantheistic teaching. or little known.
position.
theological literature.. four or
five centuries before
our era. including eighteen separate works. 1888.
system
of the
1
But the
religious history
of India.
be found. "which is in the main the most ancient source of our knowledge of these religions. if so much.
Thus.
that the great
It is in
the latter. there arose the
which comparatively new doctrine was bound up with modifications of ancient legends while on the other hand deities formerly insignificant. no sense a popular one " {Religions of India. pref. and of which much of the matter is 2 " Song of the probably pre-Buddhistic (2) the Bhagavat Gita or High ". Barth.
and
2
in
. The Mahabharata. The Gita is a fine poetico-philosophical comone
of the masterpieces of
. is not even roughly dated it has been of slow growth. It is. it would seem to have been accepted and endorsed by the Brahmans either because they could not help themselves.
At the present moment the worship of Krishna is the most many faiths of India and it has unquestionably been so for many centuries.
cultus that pressed
Brahmanism
in
hard.worship.
in
.
144
domestic guidance
CHEIST AND KEISHNA
—begin about 600 B. however. See Professor Goldstucker's essay in the Westminster Review. ii. Goldstucker. is that of a process of develop-
ment
. but the advent of his worship as a preponderating religion in historic India is late. "I recognize a literature that is pre-eminently sacerdotal.
notable degree in the case of the cult of Krishna. and is besides of an essentially encyclopaedic character" (Religions of India.
. 187. 135. On the face of the matter.
Hence the
is
peculiar difficulty
of the question of origins as regards its details. 130). a great epic poem. no part of the ancient Vedic system and the bulk of the literature in connection with it is not more than a thousand years old. giving no legends
In the Veda. of
which
the earliest written belong to our eighth or ninth century. so the elaborate system based on the Vedas by the Brahmans was innovated upon from different
sides. (3) the Puranas. April. p. Such a development took place in a
great
of
movement
Buddhism. of which the events are
laid long anterior to our era. an immense body of legendary and Most
. ii. Mention of Krishna certainly does occur in the earlier literature.
every
way
superior to the Puranas
its
Indian literature in its kind. gradually came to be widely popular.
The
(l)
chief
documents
which Krishnaism
to be studied are
the Mahabharata. says Iff. cp. or his Literary Remains. extending through ages. xiii). or by way of finding a weapon to resist some other
popular of the
. says M. p.C. Barth.
and
just as the
Vedas was superimposed on
simpler forms of nature. especially in the Bhagavat Purana and Vishnu Purana. as of every other country. 142.
of
mass of mythic narrative concerning Krishna is to The tenth book of the Bhagavat Purana consists wholly the Krishna saga.

this entire idyll of Vrindavana became in course of time the essential portion of the legend
1 Owing to theBhagavat Gita and the Bhagavat Purana being alike sometimes^ referred to as " the Bhagavat.
Of this work the date is uncertain.
But
it
is
impossible to construct for that legendary
history any certain chronology.
The Krishna Legend. slaying monsters and demons bent on their destruction. Rohini The two brothers grew up in the midst of the shepherds. 172 n. again.THE KRISHNA LEGEND
as to his
1
145
be considered later. on the Yamuna.
The
outlines of the Krishna saga are well
known. Like
those of
to
many
solar heroes. 172-4. and so mixed up with quasi-historic events as to leave it an open question whether the story has grown up round the memory of an actual historic
life. pp. 4 Beligions of India. equally invincible in war and love.
On
the very night of his birth his parents had
beyond the reach of his uncle. a hero." there has occurred the mistake of referring to the Gita as containing the legends of Krishna's life. like all the figures. at another time another wife of Vasudeva. because he had been warned by a voice from heaven that the eighth son of Devaki would put him to death. 367-371. ed. and sporting with the Gopis.). 1882.' who had been saved as he was from massacre. performing feats of valour. and put under the remove him who sought his
to a distance
life
care of the shepherd
Nanda and his wife Yacoda.
personage. 2 In one passage " all the heroes of the poem are represented as incarnations of Gods or demons " (Barth. he was brought up as their son in the woods of Vrindavana.
. King Kamsa. Rama the strong. these erotic gambols with the Gopis. a name which we meet with again at a later period in history as that of a powerful Rajput tribe. between Delhi and Agra. p. but
3
for the
convenience of readers I transcribe the brief analysis given by
4 M. Barth :—
"As a character in the epic and as accepted by Vishnuism. pp. his first appearances
were beset with perils and
obstructions of every kind. and the obscurity of the subject leaves it arguable that even in the epos Krishna is not an early but
a late element
of his cultus. presents Krishna as 2 a warrior demi-God. with his brother Balarama.
— an interpolation
We
§
arising out of the
to analysis
must then look
modern popularity and comparative
research for light on the subject. however.
These scenes of their birth and infancy. 3 See a detailed account in Sir George Cox's Mythology of the Aryan Nations. and will have to The Mahabharata." and "who has for his mother at one time Devaki herself. Krishna is a warlike prince. among the race of the Yadavas. and of a singularly doubtful moral character.
L
. Beligions of India. The son of Vasudeva and Devaki he was born at Mathura.
4. which retain in a marked way the mythic impress. these juvenile exploits.
'
the female cowherds of Vrindavana. but above all very crafty. and who consequently had his nephews the princes regularly made away with as soon as they saw the light Conveyed to the opposite shore of the Yamuna.

. 2nd ed. Pausanias asserts (viii. and black in other
1
. though the identification of Krishna with the sun is as old as the written legend. wounded
'
in the heel. Gentes. In the interval he had transferred the seat of his dominion to the fabulous city of Dvaraka. 22. i. Cp. and the blue-black robe of Leto (Hesiod. 33. it may be well at the outset to indicate the solar meanings
that have been attributed
to the story
by various
writers. and by the mere fact that. Pausanias. 195. Letture sopra la mitologia vedica.
name
. 6 Pausanias. 406) as Night-Goddess is obviously significant but Leto also. 23) that all River-Gods in Egypt except the Nile have white statues. p. like Achilles. and Krishna
of Krishna. vi. just as the places
became king of the Yadavas. Sat. which forms the subject of the Mahabharata. primary mythological explanations." Plutarch. he himself perished. notably the Osiris of Egypt. Pausanias. Krishna.
Ethiopia 7 For instance. Hindu Pantheon. in particular. and of the Christian 4 Jesus.
Gubernatis. and O. Arrived at adolescence. himself and his race.
. i. must be pronounced necessary and one is offered by Tiele
of
: .' the gates of the West.
. 138. i. i. by the arrow of a hunter. I. waged successful wars against impious kings. all the material seems to have been purely fanciful."
In this mere outline there may be seen several features of the universal legend of a conquering and dying Sun-God. See Moor. i. Again. and seen the Yadavas. 239). to say nothing 3 of the black manifestations of Greek deities. After having been present at the death of his brother. and the site of which has since been localized in the peninsula of Gujarat.
. Nilus being figured as black because it flows through
1
p. 42. 27. the epithet " blue-blooded. 17). On Isis and Osiris.16.
The
Krishna means "the black one" (or rather "black-blue one ")/ and he thus in the first place comes into line with the black 2 deities of other faiths. as to
2 3
. their persecutor. and. in fierce struggle. The Black Demdter may reasonably be assumed to be so as representing the earth the black-robed Isis is naturally the moon (Plutarch. the two brothers put to death Kamsa. p. Baruch. 173. Compare King's Gnostics. which.. It was there that he was overtaken. 1874. in view of many of 7 the facts. p. 48 ii. and took a determined side in the great struggle of the sons of Pandu against those of Dhritarashtra. was further represented as an Earth-Goddess (Macrobius.\i. He continued to clear the land of monsters. as in Egypt. 52). 2 viii. 1836. Theogony.146
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
which were the scene of them remain to the present time the most celebrated centres of his worship. by the final catastrophe. same. Adv. the Boy-God of Sleep was figured in black marble as being associated with the night (Addison. black ? It is fallacious Why then is to assume that any one cause can be fixed as the reason for the attribution of this colour to deities in ancient religions primary mythological causes might be complicated by the fact that the smoke 5 of sacrifices had from time immemorial blackened statues innumerable. 42 ix. 21. 4 For a list of black Christian statues of Mary and Jesus (=Isis and Horos)see Higgins's Anacalypsis. 5 Arnobius. black stone was very At Megara there were three serviceable for purposes of statuary. cc. 5th ed. 27. Remarks on Several Parts of Italy. built on the bosom of the western sea. kill one another to the last man. ebony statues of Apollo and the mystic explanation of the choice of 6 But there are. 262. 6. the city of gates. as to the grimy statues of Athene\ said to have been touched by fire when Xerxes took the city. like Isis.

" as it were. i. The bull Apis and the bull Mnevis. Compare Pausamas. Arjuna is "himself a name and form of Indra" (Weber. 78. 20.
. 246). the statue of the later God Serapis. in which he figures as swimming on the water. Macrobius. 31. ib.
. pp. § 31 Herodotus. p. and refs.
understood as " changing colour. Bemains. iii.. Animal. Eng. The alternate ascription of the colour bhie. Das alte Indien. 39 cp. In the early faiths the " daemon " of mixed characteristics is a constant figure. 326. and accordingly he slays Arjuna. 7 Cp. first figuring as the twin of Arjuna in a pair of Asvins. the burning fire. I." tenebrous. argues that as Indra himself is called in the Satapatha Brahmana Arjuna.'
'
a
God
of the solar fire.
represented as "dark blue. Isis and Osiris. Symbolik des Mosaischen Cultus. in the great cistern oi Khatmandu (Bahr.
more indirect symbolical meaning. 4 Moor's Hindu Pantlieon. says Mnevis was sacred to the sun. may be either solar or lunar (Aelian. like Osiris. as containing many metallic ingredients (Clemens Alexandrinus.' Like all Gods of the
is
the nightly or hidden one. De Nat. s 5 Of blue marble. in the Egyptian cults. 28) but put on black robes (Plutarch. i. Egyptian Beligion. The transpositions are endless a warning against rigid definitions in less known mythologies. Goldstucker. on the other hand. 3 Outlines. 9. tr. 145.
. as noted below.
his father's
solar fire. he being often the deity of
. and Os. 10 Compare Senart. 228 Kenrick. the " image of the soul of Osiris " (Plutarch. and later acquiring the luminous character of Indra. points to the Night-Sun theory.
He springs from the Brahman race of the Bhrigus (lightning) name is Jamadagni. and as were at times Kneph and Osiris and Amun Gubernatis." 3
Krishna is an Krishna himself 7 6 5 in one statue. 29. in Indian Antiquary.
—
. "That Parasau-Rama. Clemens. and O. 9 In sum.
147
Krishna
is
" the hidden sun-god of the night. but both are § 27) that Mnevis was treated as a God in a temple of the sun at Heliopolis black. the "white" or "bright one. Typhon. 262-7."
4
as
. p. of
is
whom
is
Incarnation.
. 41). is black to begin with (J. as to a blue-black demon. 9 Letture sopra la mitologia vedica.). cc. iv. who was black. pp. Saturnalia. Prcsparatio Evangelica. Protrep. 2 In Egypt. l. In the myth of Krishna.
THE KRISHNA LEGEND
in the present case. p. the
of
axe-Rama. and O. 21). 2 the old pair of deities Vishnu and Indra in a
he
new shape. 1. Protrept. Essai sur la Legende du Buddha. 22. 30. 27. On the other hand Professor de most acute. and who was also declared to represent the lunar world (Id.. iii. 309. Plutarch. Apis. was blue or black. 1 Outlines. 43). 52). 145. iv von Bohlen. said to be the sire of Apis. and 0. while Arjuna again occurs as a name of Krishna. Ancient Egypt." while Indra " decreases. Sun-God and Moon-God. 8 Kenrick." and in the Mahabharata the father of Arjuna. was the enemy of the "good" Sun-God and Vegetation-God Osiris. 370 Tiele.
. 1. and Apis to the moon) and we know from Strabo (xvii.
. in short. p. xvii. who was red (Is. 26. 33). 396. And Mnevis. " increases. x. Again. iv)."
Gubernatis
is
points out that in the Eig
cases seems to have a
but convinced of the solar character of Krishna 10 a natural Veda he is merely a demon
. c. n.
—
. the three are interfluent and Krishna is to be
It should be also noted that Vishnu. i."
less to
a character attaching
more or
'
many
is
figures in the
Hindu
admits
pantheon. 6 Eusebius. 322. 33) and was declared to be solar (Id. i. 1.. 39. if also one of the more speculative of modern mythologists. Contrast 51.
no doubt. Professor de becoming decadent and "demoniacal. who in turn becomes Krishna. 160. i. Cp. I. one of the in Egypt.
. the the bright God of day two Sun-Gods are friendly. 2e ed.
. was not only black himself (Strabo.

55-62. Cp. Or he may have been black merely as a God of the black-skinned natives. De Natura Deorum. 577). 190). who survived with the ancient race. p. the terrestrial.22 Servius on the Mneid. however. 1865. and in particular makes himself black with ashes (Callimachus. A reasonable presumption is that he was a demon for the Aryan invaders. were held to be raised "from the rank of good daemons to that of deities. Egyptian Beligion. 131.
He
who
and
remains. common in rural Britain till recently. 2 Id. But the old discussions as to the four or five Mercuries.
. p. 1 Zoological Mythology. p. 69) in one story. and cp. again. 62. but still propitiated. cp.
and only
later
becomes the God
of the
is
1 cows and cowherds. Osiris and Isis. 27. 4 In any case he was the rival of Indra. and is thus a genuine Egyptian deity" (Tiele. See also his monograph. v. of which the result was that Hermes. pp. though not conclusive (pp. and so presumably had similar functions. Geschichte des Alterthums. It is thus probable that all three were primarily aboriginal Gods. 75. the infernal. pp. See Plutarch. of " speaking the Devil fair. 46. Leide. p. 71. hence also black. 42. hence associated with the Night. 47-51. 3 See Note at end of section. point to a number of syncretic adaptations. Professor Pais.
of solar
among
the female cowherds. tr. and who figures in the
—
outsiders to begin with while in any case the need to propitiate him would tend to raise his rank. 51. 1875. Cp. " the
God who
2
black during the night.Sun. cited in Ernesti's ed. Cp. ed. Tiele's historical theory is interesting. Hymn to Artemis. Cicero. hence a Sun-God generally. 5 Vishnu Purdna."
The complications
it
one thing to give a general account such as this. 143 and p. 112).
. It is not clear whether Set was not confounded with the alien God Sutech. chs. 1840. History.
. as
is
other mythology are endless
and
being a
God
of the aborigines.
who
figure generally
on the side
of the
Krishnas or black demons and that for these he was a God of the sky and the rain. Miiller) to have been a Pelasgic deity. O.. the celestial. 18. pp." while Typhon (Set) was discredited. 1888. Ancient Legends of Boman History. pp. i. Eng. Wilson's trans. E. The theory of the commentators (Spanheim. Compare the habit. recalls the formula that the Iliad was not written by Homer but by another poet of the same name. that this was not the celestial but a terrestrial Hermes. following K. and thereby discredited (Meyer. Grote. tr. i. accepted in different degrees by races of conquerors. Eng. Frazer for the blackness 3 of Demeter and Osiris. Cp. 49). Egyptian Beligion. is
character of " the black one
the
enemy
of the
Vedic God Indra
.
. ad loc). Tiele. Eng. iv. Emeric-David. Etudes d'histoire religieuse." He. b. Again. and another to trace with confidence the evolution of such a deity as Krishna from the beginning. Frazer be right as to the priority of the idea of a Vegetation-
God in cults commonly associated with the Sun. And that original relation to Indra is perfectly borne out by the written legend. and yet others (cp. Set-Typhon. and as thus associated with the earth may have been black the explanation of Dr. i. 146 ff The conceptions of a God alternately of day and of night is seen in Greek and Roman names for Zeus in the two capacities. end). Hebrew Mythology. p. 30. 69. in which Krishna is represented as turning away worshippers from 6 Indra.148
CHEIST AND KRISHNA
". 25-6. 49). La Beligion des Pre-Israelites. p. being a survival of the genial Pan. As to the gradual lowering of the status of daemons. if Dr. Krishna may have been primarily such a God. 135=§ 111. I. iii. exemplifies both of the tendencies to compromise. has many of the characteristics of Krishna.
. though not clearly a Sun-God to start with. whose cult his probably superseded. hence God of the night.
of the dawning. The difficulty is to conceive how otherwise Set came to be "in turn revered and hated. and Pleyte. though 'from the most remote antiquity Set is one of the Osirian circle. who is surmised (Kenan. invoked and persecuted. 4 The Greek Hermes. and O. Goldziher. tr. 1872. but
becomes luminous
or
in the
morning among the cows
. 10 11. in the end has the solar characteristics (cp. 1906." and calling him "the good man. 522-7. Introduction." till finally his very name was officially proscribed (Id. 66. p. Meyer.

The most obvious grounds for connecting Osiris with Vegetation are his associations with corn and trees (Frazer. therefore. Gubernatis. Kenrick {Ancient Egypt. G. i.
. 403 Mitologia vedica.
God way to
"2
heaven. 67-69 and refs.
That Osiris was either a Sun-God or the Nile-God in origin is the view most favoured by the evidence in Plutarch (Isis and Osiris. J. 1890. pp. Myihol. But it is not at all clear that these are the earliest characteristics of the Egyptian God. where he is " the pluvial and thunder-
through whose region of space Krishna passes on the 3 Whatever may have been the machinery of his deposition. for a given race. Indra is one more instance of an older God superseded. 528).
—
1
He acknowledges
ii. Handbook of Egypt. was added in imitation of the Adonis cult of Byblos. Zool.
2 3
4
Gubernatis. According to some. there is maintained on the Christian side not. 311 sq. by one who for them was newer. in fact.
. 264.
Note on the Black
Osieis. 183 sq. Original Sanskrit Texts. p. i. But as against all such attempts to explain Krishnaism in terms of the observed mythic tendencies of ancient Aryan religion.
iv. By Rameses IV. based on the Christian gospels. 33). 400) rejected the solar theory. 473. Frazer as the root of the cult. 267. p. c. c. 12. however.
Similarly Krishna overthrows Varuna. The solution seems to lie in admitting that the later Osiris combined all the characteristics in question. To insist upon any one in particular is to obscure the psychological process of ancient dogmatics. Half a century ago. Belig. 32. professing to follow the Mahabharata.
Muir. however long 4 worshipped by another race. tr..
himself vanquished by Krishna
(Id. who in The Golden Bough (ed. 1850. that the entire Krishna legend is a late fabrication. a character always more or less associated with him in the Vedas. Mitologia vedica. 204. and that of Isis is equally impossible to discover " (Erman. as we shall see. by any important thinker the proposition before mentioned. i. 1907.
ch. as against Tiele and others. § 5. Maurice. and identified Osiris with the Earth and the principle of fertility here anticipating Dr.
—
—
It is necessary. " The original character of Osiris is doubtful. p. that Osiris was a God of Vegetation. to
examine that argument
in detail before
we form any
conclusions. whose cultus was latterly modified by foreign elements that. History of Hindostan.) insists.THE KRISHNA LEGEND
149
1
account of Krishna's death and ascension as a subordinate God (obviously = the firmament. i. regarded by Dr. Osiris is expressly addressed as " the moon " and " the Nile ". Geschichte des Alterthums. 31). 303-9). Eng. p. the strictly historical evidence appears to show that Osiris was originally a SunGod. the Vegetation-principle. 588)
and honours him
(Id. Frazer. See Meyer. cc. i. yet at the same time he figures as the supporter of the earth
.
ing
). 30. ii. Cp.

that symbol itself is problematic. 84). Hibbert Lectures. ' ' . But we have here to note (l) that Osiris might be green by the mere chance of the medium being green basalt (see Maspero. 1847. there are many to his connection with the earth. 2) teristic of the Vegetation-God. De Diis Syris. Deor. 81) to be very common in the Osiris monuments.150
CHKIST AND KEISHNA
(Erman. 81). . 12. 43. and was represented as gold-coloured and with Yahweh. save that of rain-giving. p. but this is only on the surface and (3) (Id. ed. pp. ed. 33) while others associated him with sun and moon respectively (Id. p. 7. 73). 1878. while Osiris is often
. pp. like Hades. the Osiris cult may have done the same. Egyptian Beligion.
would form
.
at present very little studied. 26) that "water is always represented by a flat tint of blue. The arboreal character of Osiris is shared by him with Dionysos (see above. ii. 203 cp. xiiixiv). as a solar or thundering God. pp. (Cp.' " one of the names just as I'alba or Vaube signifies the white one '" of the Dawn. Syntag. 'green felspar'. c. De nat. 7) may have determined the doctrine. Wornum. So in Greece black bulls were sacrificed to Poseidon as representing the On the other colour of the sea (Cornutus. 52). hand. 204). Eng. the place of the dead. though on his view he can explain him as black or as green (i. The Golden Hawk has wings of green. Dr.
. which latter colour is said by Wilkinson (Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians. p. The case being thus complicated. 22). p. pref.) earth is masculine (Id. Osiris was held by some to be black as representing water (Plut. Selden. 15. however. Erman. i. 135-137). 2nd ed. 11. In the Book of the Dead. tr. and the green colour of the frog is a clue to the meaning of the ancient Goddess Hequet " (Le Page Kenouf.God Shu is neshem. Manual of Egyptian Archceology. iii. grounds on which deities may be represented as black. 1895. 16. p. as cited. " One of the names of the Dawn is Uat 'it. But the fact that the Egyptian word for pp. (2) that in the coloured monuments " the blues " have turned somewhat green or grey . we find him so hailed in a litany (xv) in which he is styled " Lord of the Acacia tree " (Budge's trans. ed. :
deities
on the monuments. or by blue covered with zig-zag lines in black" (Maspero. As is observed by Wiedemann " The precise colouring of the
. 51. cap. which he If then Yahweh assumed it after having begun shares with Zeus.
described as the sun. The Lion of Dawn had a green cap or mantle. 403). who nevertheless assumed solar characteristics. Perhaps the true solution is that he was first. A similar blending occurs in the case of the Nile-God Sebak (Tiele. p. 237). 1680. which signifies the green one. green. Eng. p. Epochs of Painting. which symbolises his resurrection. it is hardly possible to settle it on the side of one hypothesis by ascribing the blackness of the God As we have seen. 35) and though this may mean the coffin-tree. was for the Egyptian a characteristic colour of the dawn. no less than crimson or gold. The water theory may be the most comprehensive solution (cp. 80. . 4. Frazer offers no explanation of Osiris as blue. p. who has no other characor red (Pausanias. tr.

Osiris cannot well have been merely an EarthGod or Plant. last cit. Plutarch. 402). Then the blackness of Osiris is not symbolical of the Earth. in a married couple. iii.
lord of all things things dry and moist (Diodorus Siculus. and that the Earth was described by the later Egyptians as male under the form of rock. and is also identified with Horos. which rivalled the
All things considered. 35). It is not disputed that from the earliest times he is the consort of Isis and Isis. as was the black Aphrodite. Even the blackness of Isis is not to be ascribed strictly and solely to her as symbolizing the Earth she unquestionably was associated. and would thus be black as Queen of the Night Sky. viii. 140) of "the green face and hands
characteristic of deities of the underworld." a view which meets the case of the green Osiris. 18. could be prevented from gradually assimilating to any of the others with similar status. Qucest.
It is true further that Osiris
spiritual." is probably the germ of Amun of Thebes. note). with the Moon and the zodiacal Virgin.
. but leaves open the problem of his blue
aspect. 14 cp.
. Bom. p. ii. iii. of Upper Egypt. also of dark complexion (Erman.
. and others female but these are In visibly late theories or common fancies. What happened later in the Christ cult. though as " Place of the Dead " he might incidentally be both. 118. where the counted for so little without the Nile overflow.
. is an Earth-Goddess and Corn-Goddess approximating at several points to Demeter. not early God-ideas. Macrobius. 32. and as female under the form of arable land (Seneca. But the Earth can hardly have been figured as at once God and Goddess. p.) The truth is.
. we are left no less in doubt. while Typhon represents everything fiery and dry (cc. It is true that there was an Earth-God Tellumon (Preller. In any case. Myth. Osiris is said to be the Nile and Typhon the Sea and Osiris stands for everything moist. trans. Eng. But the rock would not symbolize the fructifying power of Osiris and the idea was probably drawn late from the cult of Mithra. This writer in turn speaks (p.Spirit. pp. but of something else. among nations with cognate or competing cults. 8. before the
Osirian. nat.
. 33. 1-2 Macrobius. or both. 6 Orphica. And when we note that the ancient God Min. there was no means by which any God or Goddess in antiquity. who is "of dark complexion. 11) and there is some evidence that fruitbearing trees were called male.
it seems likely that in Egypt.
. Frazer grants. like whom she is figured as black. whether first or last. If Isis be the Grain or Earth. 1897.
. but hardly Grain or Earth over again. Osiris might be either the fructifying Nile or the Sun. as Dr.
. leading to interesting results in regard to the nature of the several divinities" {Religion of the Ancient Egyptians. i. 19). Saturnalia.
was held
all
fiery
and
and
Isis
ruler
of
.
soil
. the latter rather than the former would figure as the greater or more worshipful thing. (Pausanias. from time immemorial.THE KEISHNA LEGEND
151
a profitable subject of inquiry by one on the spot in Egypt. as to the moon). on the other hand.

;

152

CHEIST AND KRISHNA

period of crystallization under Roman headship, happened perforce in the older cults. As Yahweh grew from the God of a tribe to a God of the nations, so every thriving deity tended to receive wider and wider functions. The process was economic as well as psychic. It was every priest's business to increase the vogue of his temple's divinities, unless he were expressly hindered by the bestowal of a monopoly on a particular God by a particular king and every worshipper, when smoothly handled, was naturally ready to aggrandize his favourite deity. That this historically took place in the case of Osiris we know from the monuments, which show him to have been assimilated to the Sun-God Ra (Tiele, p. 44 Erman, Wiedemann, p. 306. Cp. Diod. Sic. i, 25). pp. 81-83 But this was only one of many such blendings. know for instance that Ptah, who was " certainly not originally a Sun-God," is "distinctly called the sun-disc" (Chantepie de la Saussaye, Manual of the Science of Beligion, Eng. tr. p. 425). Now, Ptah does seem to have been originally an Earth-God or Vegetation-God, and he was represented as green (Tiele, Egyptian Beligion, Eng. tr. p. 160), though he had also "the blue beard and diadem of Amun, whose colour was blue," as was that of Kneph. Amun in turn seems to have been a Nile-God and a Sun-God (Tiele, pp. 146, 148, 149 cp. Wiedemann, Bel. of the Anc. Egyptians, Eng. tr. as cited). In short, a unification of all the Gods with the Sun-God was one of the most prevalent tendencies in Egyptian religion (noted by Frazer, i, 314), as again in the Mexican. "The Gods of the dead and the elemental Gods were almost all identified with the sun, for the purpose of blending them in a theistic unity " (Maspero, cited by Lang, M. B. B. 2nd ed. ii, 134). Compare E. Meyer, Geschichte des alten Aegyptens, in Oncken's series, K. iii, p. 249. As to the case of Cham, the Vegetation-God, who was blended with the Sun-God
; ; ;

We

;

Horos, see Tiele, pp. 122-127. Such combinations may have been deliberately arranged among the priests, who at all times received an enormous revenue (Diod. Sic. i, 28, 81). It is thus doubly unnecessary to resort for explanation of any
junction of the solar and vegetal principles to the ingenious theory of Dr. Frazer (ii, 369) that the fire-sticks would be held to contain fire as a kind of sap. Kenrick (i, 403) readily acknowledged that the principle of fertility would involve alike the Sun and the Nile and the historical data since collected amply bear him out.

§ 5.

The Christian Argument.

Among modern
one of the most

explicit

statements of the Christian theory of Krishnaism, and emphatic is that inserted by an anony-

Sanskritist in a criticism of the first volume of Mr. J. Talboys Wheeler's History of India, in the Athenaum of August 10th, 1867. The criticism is hostile, pointing out that Mr. Wheeler " is not a

mous

—
THE CHEISTIAN AEGUMENT
tions with

—
153

Sanskrit scholar, nor has he very carefully examined the transla-

which he works," so that "we are never sure, without what particulars [as to Hindu legends] are drawn from the great epic, and what are from the Puranas and other It might have been added that the previous performance sources." of Mr. Wheeler had shown him to be a somewhat biassed historian. He had produced a number of popular abridgments or manuals of Old and New Testament history, in one of which he does not scruple to assert that while " Matthew, who wrote for the Jews, traces the pedigree of Joseph through David to Abraham, Luke, who wrote for the Gentiles, traces the descent of Mary through David to Adam." Such an apologist naturally does not flinch at alleging that Celsus and Porphyry "recognize " the gospels as the " genuine work of the 2 apostles"; and for such a reasoner, it is readily intelligible, the " mythic theory " is disposed of by the argument that it would make out the history of Julius Caesar to be a thorough myth. It will
referring to the original,
1

doubtless be comforting to

many

to learn that this soundly religious

Moral and Mental Philosophy and writer Logic " in the Presidency College of Madras, and that he has written an elaborate history of India with a considerable measure of

was made

Professor of "

acceptance.

But the critic of Mr. Wheeler's history in the Athenceum is hardly the person to take exception to intellectual tendencies such His own philosophy of history includes the belief that as these.
Krishnah has been borrowed by the Brahmans from the Gospel"; and he proceeds to prove his case by the following account of the legend in the Bhagavat Purana and Mahabharata an account which is worth citing at length as indicating a number of the minor myth-resemblances in the Hindu and Christian narratives, and as unintentionally paving the way for a fresh historical investigation of the latter
"
:

" the history of

Purana] commences with the announcement that to hear the story of Krishnah and believe it is all that is required for salvation and throughout the narrative the theme of exhortation is faith. Next it is declared that, sin and impiety having spread over the whole world, the Deity resolved to become incarnate in the form of Krishnah. He determined to destroy a tyrant king, whose name signifies Lust, who ruled at Mathura, and who murdered children. Krishnah is represented as born the nephew

The

recital [in the

;

of this king,

and therefore

of royal descent.

The name

of his tribe is

Yadu,

1 Abridgment of New Testament History, 1854, p. 35. Cp. Analysis and Summary of New Testament History, 1859, by same author (p. 28), where it is explained that LiuHe went back to Adam because he was "desirous of proving [the Gentiles'] admission into tpe Gospel covenant "—the descent of David from Adam not being an established hypothesis.

2

Analysis, as cited, p. xxviii.

154
which

CHRIST AND KRISHNA
is almost the same as Yahudah in Hebrew. His real mother was Devakf, which signifies the Divine Lady, and his reputed mother Yasoda,

or Yashoda. His father's name was Vasudev. In comparing this word with Yusef, we must remember that Dev in Sanskrit signifies divine, and

the d appears to have been inserted from that word. the
' '

The resemblance
'

of

name Krishnah itself to Christ is remarkable enough, but it becomes more so when we consider that the root Krish means to tinge,' and may
Preliminary to the birth of Krishnah the four Vedas become incarnate, and the tyrant king is warned by a divine voice that a son is to be born in his house who will destroy him. Upon this he puts to death the infants that are born to the Divine Lady, and makes a great slaughter of the tribe of Yadu. Notwithstanding this, Krishnah is born and placed in a basket for winnowing corn in other ivords, a manger. His father then carries him off to Gokula (or Goshen, the eastern side of Lower Egypt), which is represented as a country place near Mathura. On finding that the child has escaped, the tyrant makes a slaughter of infant children. A variety of puerile fables suited to the Hindu taste follow, showing how Krishnah was subject to his reputed mother, and how he reproved her. Being now thought to be the son of a shepherd, Krishnah plays in the wilderness, and is assaulted by the various fiends, and overcomes them all. This temptation winds up with the overthrow of the great serpent, upon whose head, assuming the weight of the three worlds, he treads.' Even in the strange recital of Krishnah's sports with the cowherdesses, threads of allusions to the Gospels are not wanting. Krishnah is continually manifesting his divinity, and yet disclaiming it. He goes to an Indian fig-tree and utters a sort of parable, saying, Blessed are those that bear pain themselves and show kindness to others. In another place he says that those who love him shall never suffer death. He proceeds to abolish the worship of Indra, the God of the air, and to invite his followers to worship a mountain. He directs those about him to close their eyes, and issues from the interior of the mountain with a face like the moon and wearing a diadem.' In this there seems to be an allusion to the Transfiguration. Then follows a scene suited to Hindu taste. Indra rains down a deluge, and Krishnah defends the inhabitants of Braj by supporting the mountain on his finger, and he is then hailed as the God of Gods. Krishnah now resolves on returning from the country to the city of the tyrant king. He is followed by a multitude of women and by the cowherds. He enters the city in royal apparel. He is met by a deformed woman, who anoints him with sandalwood oil. On this Krishnah makes her straight and beautiful, and promises that his regard for her shall be perpetual on which her good fortune is celebrated by all the people of the place. In the account of this miracle the narratives in Mark xiv 3 and Luke xiii 11 are blended.
well be taken to signify also
'

anoint.''

;

'

'

;

It

may be as well to mention here another miracle, which is mentioned in the Maha Bharata. Krishnah is there said to have restored the son of a widow to life And Krishnah laid hold of the dead man's hand and said, Arise, and by the will of the Almighty the dead man immediately arose.' A
' :

great army of barbarians is assembled by a distant king to destroy the holy city of Mathura Krishnah then transports the city and his disciples
to

Dwarka, which

is built

in the sea.

This appears
tlie

to be

of tJw siege of Jerusalem

and

the flight of

Christians.

a distorted account Krishnah now

THE CHRISTIAN ARGUMENT
returns to
;

155

and

Mathura and combats with the barbarians flies from their chief, pursued into a cave of the White Mountains, where there is a man sleeping, covered with a silken robe, apparently dead. This man arises from sleep and consumes the pursuer of Krishnah. In this account of the
is

cave there are evident allusions
in a following chapter there
is

and Krishnah into Hades and his recovery of certain persons from the dead At the great sacrifice performed by Yudhishthira the task which devolves on Krishnah is that of washing the feet of those present. One person alone is said to have been dissatisfied, and that is Duryodhana, who is generally regarded as an incarnation of the Evil Spirit, and who, like Iscariot, here carries the bag, and acts as treasurer It must be admitted, then, that there are most remarkable coincidences between the history of Krishnah and that of Christ. This being the case, and there being proof positive that Christianity was introduced into Judea at an epoch when there is good reason to suppose the episodes which refer to Krishnah were inserted in the Maha Bharata, the obvious inference is that the Brahmans took from the Gospel such things as suited them, and so added preeminent beauties to their national epic, which otherwise would in no respect have risen above such poems as the
to the

burial

and resurrection

of Christ ;

an account

of the descent of

Shahnamah

of the Persians."

1

As to the authorship of this criticism we can only speculate. In an allusion to the doctrine of the Bhagavat Glta the writer expresses himself as " willing to admit " that " the Gita is the most sublime poem that ever came from an uninspired pen"; thus taking up the position of ordinary orthodoxy, which presupposes the supernatural origin of the Christian system, and prejudges every such This is the standing trouble question as we are now considering. with English scholarship. Even Professor Miiller, who has produced an Introduction to the Science of Beligion, is found writing to a correspondent in terms which seemingly imply at once belief in
Christian supernaturalism and a fear that the discussion of certain
questions in comparative mythology

supposing," he

writes, "

may damage the some or many of the doctrines
Does a
sailor trust his

faith.

"

Even

of Christianity
are),

were found in other religions also (and they certainly

does that
less

make them
because
it

less true ?

own compass

can be proved that the Ghinese had a compass before we

had it?" And again: "These questions regarding the similarities between the Christian and any other religions are very difficult to 2 treat, and unless they are handled carefully much harm may be done."

From

scholarship of this kind (though, as it happens, Miiller finally opposes the theory of Christian derivation) one turns perforce to
that of the continent.
1

2

Athenceum, as cited, pp. 168-9. Letters to C. A. Elflein, printed at end of a pamphlet by the latter entitled

Buddha,

Krishna, and Christ,

—
156

CHRIST AND KRISHNA

Weber, who refers to the Athenceum critic's argument in his study on the " Geburtsfest," emphatically distinguishes between what he thinks plausible and what seems to him extravagant, though the argument in question goes to support some of his own positions. The identifications of the names Yasoda, Yusef, and Vasudev, Gokula and Goshen, he rightly derides as being " a la P. Giorgi "; and he mentions that the stories of the woman's oblation and forgiveness, and also that of the raising of the widow's dead son, are not from the Mahabharata at all, but from the Jaimini-Bharata, a work of 2 the Purana order a point which, of course, would not essentially affect the argument. On the main question he sums up as
1

—

follows

:

wo could so construe these words that they should harmonize with the view of Kleuker " [before quoted] " we might contentedly accept them. If, however, they are to be understood as meaning that the history of Krishna in the lump (ilberhaupt) was first taken from the Gospel history (and indeed the author seems not disinclined to that view), then we cannot
' '

" If

endorse them." 3

That is to say, the theory of the Christian origin of the general Krishna legend is rejected by Weber, the most important supporter of the view that some details in that legend have so originated. And not only is this rejection overwhelmingly justified, as we shall see, by the whole mass of the evidence, earlier and later, but so far as I am aware no Sanskrit scholar of any eminence has ever put his name to the view maintained by the anonymous writer in the Athenceum. Even Mr. Wheeler, who believes all the Gospels "and more," does not go to these lengths. He is more guarded even where he suggests similar notions.
"The account of Raja Kansa," he obsorves, "is been borrowed from the Gospel account of King tho case or not, it is certain that most of the inserted for the purpose of ennobling the birth of
supposed by many to have Horod. Whether this be details are mythical, and Krishna " i

—

—

it being Mr. Wheeler's opinion that the story of Krishna as a whole has a personal and historic basis. He further holds that 11 the grounds upon which Krishna seems to have forgiven the sins of the tailor " [who made clothes for his companions] " seem to 5 form a travestie of Christianity"; and, like the writer in the Athenceum and earlier pietists, he thinks that the Gospel stories of the bowed woman and the spikenard " seem to have been thrown

1 He puts a " sic!" after the spelling Yashoda in quoting the passago, and another after the word " inserted " in the phrase " appears to have heen inserted from that word." 2 Ueber die Krishnajanmdslttami, as cited, p. 315, n. 4 8 Id. p. 316. « Id. p. 471, n. History of India, i, 464, note.

—

—
TH1 OBNTBAL DISPROOF
157

together
aolvoa

Id

bhe Legend of Kuhja."

conceives bhat bhe Hindus
:

On bhe other hand, however, he may have invented Borne things for them
bhe
great

might be held as Bettled onoe for all by bhe evidenoe of Patanjali's MahabhAshya or Great Commentary," a grammatical work based on previous ones, and dating from tho hocoiuI oentnry B.C., bnt first made in part aooessible bo European The evidenoe of bhe soholars >y bhe Benares edition of L872. Mahabhashya is thus summed up by bhe Learned Professor Bhandarkar of Bombay, after discussion of bhe passages on which ho
bhem.
point, indeed,
I

The

founds, as dearly proving:
1st..

That bhe

stories of bhe death of

Kansa and bhe subjugation
in

of Ball

were popular and ourrent in Patanjali's time. '2nd. That Krishna or Vasudeva was mentioned

bhe story as

having killed E£ansa.
sentations,
1

"8rd. That suoh stories formed bhe Bubjeots of dramatic repreits Puranio stories arc still popularly represented on the
stage.

1

ii

id u

"4th. That the event of Cansa's death at the hands of Krishna was In Patanjali's time believed bo have ooourred at a very remote
time."
bo quoted from an existing
1

to Othor passages, Profossor Bhandarkar thinks, would appear poem OH Krishna"; and, in liis opinion, Not only was the story ol* Krishna and Kausa current and popular iu Patanjali's time, but it appears clearly that the former was

stories of

If bhe worshipped as a God." And bhe Professor oonoludes bhat shall notice hereKrishna and Ball, and others which after, were current and popular in bhe seoond century B.O., some suoh works as bhe Barivansa and bhe Puranas must have existed
1

then."

Disoussing bhe Mahabhashya on
1

its

publication (some years after
1,1.

1,1.

v. -170,

;/.

P. tflS. a.

Art.

"AUuiioni
ill

t<»
l»

1 ECriibse la PataojaU'i Mababntibya,' to bhe Indian

dntumarVt

Moiubuy, vol.

(1H71),

Lfl

;

158
his paper
it

CHEIST AND KRISHNA
on the
Birth-festival),

Weber had

already conceded that

1

pointed not only almost beyond doubt to a pre-existing poetic

compilation of the Mahabharata Sagas, but to the ancient existence
of the

Kansa myth.

Kansa, he pointed out, figured in regard to

Bali, in the passages quoted in the Mahabhashya, as a demon, and his " enmity towards Krishna equally assumed a mythical character,

into

which
'

also the different colours of their followers (the

'

black

ones
1

are
'

then also those of
'!)

Kansa

?

though Krishna himself
Or," the Professor goes on,

signifies

black

would seem

to enter.

battles between Aryans and the aborigines occupying India before them?" In

could there be thereby
2

signified

some Indian
of

another place,
"

alluding

to

the contention

Dr.

Burnell

3

that

much

in the

modern philosophical schools

of

India comes from

some form of Christianity derived from Persia," Professor Weber pointed out that " quite recently, through the publication of the
Mahabhashya, a much older existence is proved for the Krishna cultus than had previously seemed admissible." Finally, in com4 menting on the argument of Bhandarkar, Weber allows that the passages cited by the scholar from Patanjali are " quite conclusive and very welcome " as to an intermediate form of Krishna- worship though he disputes the point as to the early existence of literature of the Purana order a point with which we are not here specially concerned and goes on to contend that the passages in question " do not interfere at all with the opinion of those who maintain, on quite reasonable grounds," that the later development of Krishnaism " has been influenced to a certain degree by an acquaintance with the or even doctrines, legends, and symbols of the early Christians with the opinion of those who are inclined to find in the Bhagavadgita traces of the Bible for though I for my part am as yet not convinced at all in this respect, the age of the Bhagavadgita is still so uncertain that these speculations are at least not shackled by any

—

—

;

;

chronological obstacles."
I

as far as

know of no recent Weber does
;

expert opinion which refuses to go at least
here.

His persistent contention as to the

presence of some Christian elements in the Krishna cult I will discuss later but in the meantime it is settled that the most
conservative Sanskrit scholarship on the continent not only admits

and of such an important quasi-Christian element in it as the story Kansa, which had so zealously been claimed (and that with Weber's consent in former years) as an adaptation from the Herod
story in the Christian Gospel.
§

7.

Antiquity of Krishnaism.

The proof of the pre-Christian antiquity of the Krishna cult, however, does not rest merely on the text of the Mahabhashya, or the conclusions of scholars in regard to that. The extravagance of
the orthodox Christian argument was apparent it was rejected, we have seen, by Weber before the passages in the Mahabhashya were brought forward. There have long been known at least three inscriptions, in addition to at least one other literary allusion, which prove Krishnaism to have flourished long before the period at which the Christians represent it to have been concocted from the Gospels. 1. The Bhitari pillar inscription, transcribed and translated by 1 Dr. W. H. Mill, and dating from, probably, the second century of our era, proves Krishna to be then an important deity. The Krishna passage runs, in Dr. Mill's translation " May he who is like Krishna still obeying his mother Devaki, after his foes are vanquished, he of golden rays, with mercy protect this my design." This trans2 lation Lassen corrects, reading thus " Like the conqueror of his enemies, Krishna encircled with golden rays, who honours Devaki, may he maintain his purpose "; and explaining that the words are to be attributed to the king named in the inscription (Kumaragupta), and not to the artist who carved it, as Dr. Mill supposed. "As in the time to which this inscription belongs," Lassen further remarks, " human princes were compared with Gods, Krishna is here represented as a divine being, though not as one of the highest Gods." Dr. Mill, on the other hand, holds Krishna to be understood as " the supreme Bhagavat " referred to in other parts of the inscription. However this may be, the cultus is proved to have existed long

—

—

—

:

—

:

before the arrival of Christian influences.

fragmentary inscriptions discovered in 1854 by Mr. E. C. Indian Civil Service, equally point to the early " deification of Krishna. One has the words " Krishnayasasa arama in Aryan Pali letters the other " Krishnayasasya arama medangisya."
2.

Two
3

Bayley,

of the

;

The

first

two words mean
of

"

meaning " the glory
1

Krishna

The Garden of Krishnayasas," this name and Mr. Bayley thinks that ";
1837, PP. 1-17.

medangisy a, =" corpulent, is some wag's addition to the original As to the date, Mr. Bayley writes " The form of the Indian letters had already led me to assign them roughly to the first 1 century A.D. On showing them, however, to Major A. Cunningham, he kindly pointed out that the foot strokes of the Aryan letters ally them to those on the coins of Pakores '; and he therefore would place them more accurately in the first half of the second century A.D. at the earliest." Major Cunningham, it will be remembered, is one of those who see imitation of Christianity in the Krishna legends, so his dating is not likely to be over early. In any case, Mr. Bayley admits that the inscriptions " would seem to indicate the admission of Krishna into the Hindu Pantheon at the period" when they were cut. " If, however," he adds, " this be eventually established, it by no means follows that the name was applied to the same deity as at present, still less that he was worshipped in the same manner." It is not very clear what Mr. Bayley means by "the same deity"; or whether he would admit the God of the Jews to be the same deity as the Father of Jesus Christ, as worshipped by Archdeacon Farrar. But if he merely means to say that the Hindu conception of Krishna, like his ritual, might be modified after centuries, his
inscription.

—

:

'

proposition
3.

may

readily be accepted.
pillar inscription, translated
2

by Wilkins, to which I have observed no allusion in recent writers on Krishnaism, serves equally to prove the early existence of a legend of a divine Krishna born of Devakl and nursed by Yasoda. It contains the passage, alluding to a distinguished lady or princess
:

The Buddal

—

" She, like

another Devaki,
the adopted of

bore unto him a son of high renown,

Yasodha and husband

Goddess Lakshmi being here identified with Krishna's bride. This inscription was dated by Wilkins "shortly B.C.," and by Sir William Jones 67 C.E. I have not ascertained how it is placed by later scholars but in any case it must long antedate the periods assigned by Weber and the Athenaum critic to the arrival of the Christian influences which are supposed to have affected later Krishnaism. 4. In the Khandogya Upanishad, a document admittedly older than our era, there occurs 8 this passage " Ghora Angirasa, after having communicated this (view of the sacrifice) to Krishna, the
of
;

Lakshmi

"

—the

who resembled

—

:

1 By "century a.d." Mr. Bayley means "century after Christ." "First century anno domini," a form constantly used by academic writers, is nonsense. In this paper I use " "c.e." to signify " Christian era," as b.c." signifies "before Christ." This, or the use of the form " a.c," is surely the reasonable course. 2 Asiatic Researches, i, 131. 3 iii, Muller's trans., Sacred Books of the East, i, 52. 17, 6
;

—
INVALID EVIDENCE
son of Devaki
ledge)

;

161

—said,"

—and

etc.

On

he never thirsted again (after other knowthis passage Muller comments
:

The curious coincidence between Krishna Devakiputra, here mentioned as a pupil of Ghora Angirasa, and the famous Krishna, the son of Devaki, was first pointed out by Colebrooke, Miscell. Essays, ii, 117. Whether it is more than a coincidence it is difficult to say. Certainly we can build no
it than those indicated by Colebrooke, that new fables have been constructed, elevating this personage to the rank of a God. We know absolutely nothing of the old Krishna Devakiputra except his having been a pupil of Ghora Angirasa, nor does there seem to have been any attempt made by later Brahmans to connect their divine Krishna, the son of Vasudeva, with the Krishna Devakiputra of our Upanishad. This is all the more remarkable because the author of the Sandilya-sutras, for instance, who is very anxious to found a srauta authority for the worship of Krishna Vasudeva as the supreme deity, had to be satisfied with quoting modern compilations Professor Weber has treated these questions very fully, but it is not quite clear to me whether he wishes to go beyond Colebrooke, and to admit more than a similarity of name between the pupil of Ghora Angirasa and the friend of the Gopis."

"

other conclusions on

may

Weber,

it

may

similarity of

name ":

be noted in passing, does " admit more than a 1 in his treatise on the Birth Festival he founds

on the Upanishad reference as indicating one of the stages in the development of Krishnaism. And as Muller does not dispute in the least the antiquity and authenticity of that reference, but only queries "coincidence," it may be taken as pretty certain that we have here one more trace of the existence of the Krishna legend long before the Christian era. There is nothing in the least remarkable in the fact of the passage not being cited by a writer who wanted texts on the status of Krishna as " the supreme deity," because the passage clearly does not so present Krishna. But it is no part of our case to make out that Krishna was widely worshipped as " the supreme deity " before our era on the contrary, the evidence mostly goes to show that he attained his eminence, or at least his Brahmanical status, later. The point is that his name and story were current in India long before the Christian legends, as such, were heard of and the series of mutually supporting testimonies puts this beyond
;

doubt.
§

8.

Invalid Evidence.

It does not

seem

likely that the force of the foregoing evidence

will be seriously disputed.

At the same time, it is necessary to on by some scholars, and in particular by Lassen, to prove the early existence of Krishnaism will
point out that

some

of the data relied

1

As

cited, p. 316.

and which Von Bohlen (Altes Indien.) 1 " We may from this passage conclude with certainty that in the time of
wives was born
. so
little
3
were the Greeks disposed to master foreign languages. 647-9. Ptoleinaios names Mathura the city of the Gods. Alex. and might seem to impute an inclination to make out an identity between the Greek and the Indian hero.
"much
to be desired. More probably he needed interpreters. has
mentioned
[the]
connection of Krishna with the Pandavas.
KXetcr6/3opa. vi. It would appear from a remark of Arrian (Exped. 233) with apparent justice reads as Krishna-Pura. especially when we compare the form Pandavya and in that connection my previous conclusion seems to be irrefragable. for Vishnu also carries a That he also.—
162
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
not by themselves support that conclusion.
Indische Alterthumskunde. 22) calls Carisobara or Cyrisoborea or Chrysobora.. and specially in warriors. After his (Diodor.
It leaves. Arrian. but many sons. puts
his case thus
:
" Megasthenes. making them kings.
4
Outlines. among whom he divided all India.000 wives and 180.
. ii. Besides Mathura.
are descended. which Pliny (Hist. the Indian
Hercules] " excelled
all
men
in strength of body
evil. That we are entitled to take this Hercules for Krishna appears from the fact that he was specially honoured by the people of Surasena. and wiped them out. p. 39.
the whole earth and the sea of
and spirit he had purged and founded many cities of his many
. from whom the series of Pandava Kings
. Ind. there becomes apparent that writer's exact acquaintance with Indian matters. vi. Nat. 8. When Megasthenes describes him as bearing a club. i. whose descendants reigned through many generations and did famous deeds some of their kingdoms stood even to the time when Alexander invaded India. 30) that only one Macedonian in Alexander's train learned Persian. says Tiele. (Ind. Pandaia is exactly the name of Pandava. and in talk between these and the Brahmans the poetic epithet " lion " would hardly be used. Probably Megasthenes was misled by the fact that in Sanskrit the word lion 3 is used to indicate a pre-eminent excellence in men. Pandaia. viii. like Hercules. Of cities founded by him. 440. however. His statement is as follows: He" [i. who incarnated himself when the transgressions of the world began to overflow. does not correspond to Krishna. Megasthenes named another city of the Surasenes. 5.
.) death. UavSaiv. . The account of Megasthenes further corresponds with the Indian Saga in respect that there many wives and sons are ascribed to Krishna (16. 2 Lassen here assumes that Megasthenes knew Sanscrit. we know only Dvaraka and Palibothra had another founder. See Vishnu Purana. Clearly.e. divine honours had been paid him. pp. indeed.
i
(1847). whose account of ancient India
is
the weightiest because
the oldest of
all
those left to us by foreigners. which is not at all certain."
4
Note by Lassen. 148. . In Alexander's expedition communications seem at times to have been filtered through three interpreters.000 sons. that Megasthenes has signified by the daughter of Krishna the sister." 3
Now. who identifies Krishna with the Indian Hercules spoken of by Megasthenes. Lassen. 591). and precisely in the character of Vishnu. wore a club (hence his name of Gadddhara) lion's hide.
thenes
1
it is
sufficiently plain
on the face
of this exposition that
the identification of Krishna with the Indian Hercules of Megasis
imperfect. city of Krishna.
Megasthenes Krishna was honoured as one of the highest of the Gods. and his remarks deserve close attention as giving a historical foothold in regard to the vogue of the worship of Krishna.
only one daughter.

and allude to. such statues have been thought to resemble. vii.
. evidence the prior currency
of the traditions
constitute the argument of the Mahabharata. very emphatically combats
Pandaean country. pref. and a pestle for beating
." 2 accepted Lassen's view but does not do so with any emphasis. Bala. It is necessary. 409 (1853). " was and their notices of indubitably the Bala Eama of the Hindus Mathura on the Jumna. n. Barth. and 3 points out that it has been contested by Weber. to see in him Bala Rama. relating to the Pandava and Yadava races. regarding Megasthenes' testimony as of uncertain value in any case. a much more satisfactory identification of the Indian Hercules of Megasthenes lay ready to Lassen's hand in Wilson's introduction to his translation of the Vishnu Purana. ii. it is true. His name. Essai sur la Legende du Buddha. p.
When we
established
:
glance at the description of Bala
Kama
as he figures
sufficiently
in Indian effigies. " The pestle is of
. and Musali. means strength and the beneficent attributes here noticed are by some called a ploughshare for hooking his enemies. in my opinion. who." (Note. 4 as M. as bearing the musal.
vi. Beligions of India. to Krishna and his contemporary heroes. whose masterly Essay on the Legend of Buddha has put him in the front rank of Indianists and mythologists.— —
INVALID EVIDENCE
163
In point of fact." says that sound scholar. an affinity. meaning plough-armed.
—
1
2
3
i
Trans. declines to accept the reading of Kleisobora as Krishnapura. Lassen finds Vishnu more vraisemblable.. and to the dynasties M. even in respect of the association with Krishna. and of the kingdom of the Suraseni and the
. that Hercules with Krishna.
and he has epithets derived from the names of these implements viz. 11 The Hercules of the Greek writers. p.
which and which are constantly repeated in the Puranas. has tacitly of the solar and lunar heroes. Halayudha. in the eyes of a Greek. and a club for destroying them and being sometimes seen with a lion's skin over his shoulders. the view of
Wilson and Senart seems
"Bala Rama
a benefactor of
rice
. I think. 339. the more striking because it was exterior.
1
.
Itidische Studien. and considers Wilson's theory of Bala Eama more reasonable. who seems simply to
[Megasthenes']
:
infinitely
have confounded under this one name legends appertaining to several of the avatars of Vishnu it is. Senart. for whom his club would constitute. And M. to accept the same synonymy for the Hercules spoken of by Megasthenes. Lassen has done. of Vishnu Purana.
1840.
mankind
although a warrior.
pp. an error of over-precision to identify. 163. may from his attributes be esteemed for he bears a plough. or rice-beater.
. those of the Theban Hercules and their legends. 2e ed.
Lassen's position
" In
:
it would be Hercules M. with the son of Alcmena."
.

§
9.Moor's Hindu Pantheon.' Vishnu.
The early vogue of Krishna-worship being thus amply proved. who is the favourite subject of heroic and he is described of ample shoulders. however. brawny arms. Diodorus club and lion's skin as among the Greeks.
.
Weber
if
even
of
mind. That theory. corresponds with
shall
We
significance
of
Hercules figure so far as to support strongly M. circular and full.
.
1
tells
(ii. shell-formed to the knee marks body. hyacinthine with eyes and lips of sanguine hue the lord of the source of joy to Ikshwaku's the world a moiety of Vishnu himself blue-bodied. of course.
—
In fine. that he has approached it from the first in a perfectly scientific frame
Professor
that. p. 194. then. we are not entitled to say with Lassen that Megasthenes clearly shows the worship of Krishna to have attained the highest eminence in India three hundred years before our era but what is certain is that the whole group of the legends with which Krishna is connected had at that date already a high religious standing and that an important Krishna cultus. he is perfectly disinterested in his whole treatment of the subject. beyond noting how precisely the former corresponds with the Hercules of Megasthenes. of course. keeping in view at the
same
:
time.
amatory poetics
'
:
. about four feet long. with the ends 1 tipped or ferrelled with iron.
.
. closely connected with Krishna. p. the next great Hindu epic after the Mahabharata. an appellation of Krishna.—
164
.
Moor's Hindu Pantheon. This is not to say. and two inches in diameter.
CHKIST AND KRISHNA
hard wood.
It is only fair to
mention that besides seeing Christian
elements in Krishnaism he finds Homeric elements in the Ramayana. 195.
39)
that iu India Hercules has the
.")
have to consider further hereafter the mythological Bala Rama and the other two Ramas.
. it remains to consider the argument. as to the derivation of certain parts of Krishnaism from
Christianity. it will suffice to say that one of the other Ramas.
Weber's Theory. ." 2 as of the prototype of both
Rama
. so long persisted in by Professor Weber. resting on these.
more With these
is not to be identified there is no reason to doubt he be mistaken. existed before and spread through India after that period. as well He is also called race. Senart's hypothesis of a combination of various personages in the Greek's
the
conception
" It
is
:
Chandra. to prevent their splitting or wearing. In the meantime.
. the
extensive claims
made by the
partizans of Christianity. but certainly flourished long before the advent of Christian influences. extending chest. with auspicious neck.

"
2
It is
Gebiirtsfest
latterly
not likely that. individual. by Professor A. as the Buddhists in the freshness of their religious zeal.
" Still
epoch forms a
common type of all Hindu sects. the argument for a reciprocal action of the two and it becomes religions is on the face of it plausible enough
Christ
. = black.)
Bombay. 28.
necessary to go into the details. which includes a frank avowal that there is evidence of Hindu influence on Christianity just about the time at which he thinks Christianity influenced Krishnaism
:
more deep [than the Grecian] has been the influence of Christianity. which is not to be found in India before this time. namely." Apart from that. after the banter he has bestowed in Krishna's on the Eather Giorgi order of etymology. One passage will serve to show his general position. the monastic system of monks and nuns. being often too marked for it to be an independent production compare the worship of relics. confession. even the name of Christ seems to stand in direct connection with it. and need not be here discussed. can be best explained by the influence of the latter. and several legends of Christ. Christian ceremonial and rites (which were forming just at that time) show to the Buddhistic in many respects.
Fanny
{Indiscne
. the tonsure. rosaries.— —
WEBEE'S THEOEY
1
165
however. are transferred to him. T. 1854.
of Ancient India. universal God. p. by way of Alexandria. 25-6. 2 Modern Investigations
Lecture delivered in Berlin. etc.
. Translated by Skizzen. In an opposite manner. had early The great resemblance which the sent their missionaries beyond Asia.
celibacy. pp. which now takes an entirely new form.
. which stands on a different footing. The Manichaean system of religion in Persia is very evidently indebted to Buddhistical conceptions. 1873." and of In his treatise on the Krishna Birth-Festival he posits a number of
—
1
See
it
ably criticized in K. Weber. 1857. seems to have met with very small acceptance among Indianists. Telang's
Was
A
the
Bdmdyana
copied
from Homer ?
__
. universal God and the idea of Faith. more especially in Alexandria. might mean " anointed " because the root might mean " to tinge. but which from this
also chiefly introduced
. to which is to be attributed the idea of a personal. Weber would
have adhered to the above suggestion about the name of or that he would give a moment's countenance to the argument of the Athenceum critic that the name Krishna. any more than his old
argument as to the influence of Greek art on India after Alexander. In the worship of Krishna. March
Metcalfe. as well as of his mother the Divine Virgin. bells. of " a personal.
4. an ancient hero.
In the above extract Weber indicates only two respects in which Krishnaism was in his opinion modified by Christianity the Faith. Hindu philosophy too exercised a decided influence upon the formation of several of the Gnostic sects then rising. carried on by their principle of universalism. ." doctrines. the architecture of church of each faith towers (with the Buddhistic Topes).

the Birth Festival itself
.
how
source of
narratives
these
stories
— as
to
how
these particular miraculous
came
to be told in connection with
Jesus
—he
makes
(save on one point) no inquiry. that but for the Professor's
to have lost conwould seem. are just as likely to be mythical as the story of
of
sumption
Herod and the massacre
never inquired
of the innocents ?
Apparently Weber has
His argument simply assumes that the Gospel stories (whether true or not.
the attempted killing by Kansa
.
and the sin-removing power
of his regard.
important. So
.
Pagan
Parallels.
one would think. he does not say) came into circulation at the foundation of Christianity.
the reprethe curious
sentation of Krishna as a child suckled by his mother
item that.
the story of
Christian myth. at the time of Krishna's birth. of which. and the Christian Herod-story be thus admittedly
a redaction of an old Eastern myth. his foster-father Nanda goes with his wife Yasoda to Mathura " to pay his taxes" (a detail not noted by the Athenaum critic) the representation of the babe
.
A most important admission. the carrying of the child across the river (as in the Christian " Christophoros " legend) the miraculous doings of
. has already been made by Professor Weber in regard to the story of King Kansa which he admits to be now proved a pre-Christian myth. .
§
10. and apparently feels no difficulty
though to a
scientific eye.
the straightening of the crooked
woman
. the central Kansa be admittedly a preit
we might have surmised him
If
fidence in his whole position. it will be remembered.
later restatement
is
that withdrawal.
the " massacre
of the innocents".
as laid in a
manger
.
in Weber's investigation is his allusion to the view that the representation of the Virgin Mary as either suckling or clasping the infant Jesus may have been borrowed from the
The one exception
1
Work
cited. and so became accessible to the world. on the face of them.
citadel
has
fallen.
the raising of
the bereaved mother's dead son.
166
concrete details
:
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
in particular. pp. But as to the
the Christian stories in general originated. the clearing-up in some
way
of the causation of the Christian legends is as necessary as the
explaining
how
they are duplicated in Krishnaism.
the child and the healing virtue of his bath water (as in the Apoc-
ryphal Gospels)
.
.
These concrete
details I will first deal with.
her pouring ointment over
1
Krishna
.. 328-9. indeed.
what becomes
of
the pre-
Indian imitation of other Christian stories which.

614. cited by Weber himself from
'
De Rossi. to question whether these early Madonnas were really Christian whether they did not represent the almost universal vogue of the worship of a child-nursing Goddess apart from Christianity.
3 4
Indian Antiquary. one of the and meant a sucking infant
. s. a Roman Catholic Anglo-Indian."
illustrations
Now.
special
in the
6
myths he
1
is
either suckled
by or actually the child
2
of
Demeter." the Virgin. 142. 480-1 (. "the Maiden. Geographia Sacra. originally
The very name Iacchos. Suidas.v. even
if it
be decided that the earliest " Madonnas " in the
Catacombs have a classic rather than an Egyptian cast. that the Roman catacombs. c. Cp.
381
. ix." Diodorus. i. iv. 1843. Images de la T. p. pp. So the Latin Liber. in." And again (a passage which Weber does not cite) " The frescoes of our
the Holy Virgin with her divine child
. 300. Growse's pretext for his indignantly and justly resented. 6te Aufl. an imputation which the scholar has 2 Mr. but there were in the vague. in. 18). of 1 desire to give offence".
les
.
4
titles of Dionysos. and Maury. c. Myth. 2nd ed. p.
The paintings
of
Says
De
Rossi
:
our subterranean cemeteries offer us the first images of and they are much more numerous and more ancient than is indicated by the works hitherto [before 1863] published on the Catacombs of Rome. separateness of the cult of Iacchos see Rohde. iii. b. of course. Rome. splenetic charge was the claim. like her mother.
"
earliest representations of the
Madonna
in the
recently brought to light. Growse. 6 Diodorus Siculus. iii. S. Preller.
5
Cataconibes de Borne. follow a classic and
not an Egyptian type. There is no artistic or documentary evidence whatever of Christian Madonna. c. 6-7. 4te Aufl. 21. pp. Cp.
Bochart.
314. i. It does not occur to Commendatore De Rossi. Sirnrock. 1674. As to the original ''Iclkxos. :
and the monuments cited by me here. Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie. Otherwise Dionysos is the child of Persephone—Kore. iii. Griech. For citing from previous writers he has been angrily accused a wanton by Mr. "
Madonnas
"
of
a " classic " cast before
the time at which the absolute images of Isis were transferred to Christian churches.Chanaan. Julius Ccesar. demonstrate that in the most ancient works of Christian art the Virgin holding her child is figured 3 independently of the Magi and of any historic scene.worship in the first century. 284-5. 38. Ligendes Pieuses du Moyen Age. which seem to me to be as the models of the different types and of the different periods which one meets from the first centuries to about the time of Constantine. nothing would be proved against the Egyptian derivation of the cult of the Virgin and Child." leave matters very much There might indeed be Christian. Strabo. 251. i. 62. was . 5 lb. I have chosen four. Vierge dans
Id. See above." and his final claim that his series of images " goes back to the disciples of the apostles. pp.
—
certainly non-Christian. and black images of Mary and Jesus were made
in imitation of them. ed. 4. Plutarch. 1. iv. and De Rossi's "premiers sidcles.—
PAGAN PARALLELS
this suggestion
167
Egyptian statues or representations of Isis and Horus." who. Psyche. 64 . 1863.

Ettore Pais. O. Miss Harrison. trans. Prolegomena. tr. p.
K. pp. O. Miss Harrison. Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Beligion. 31. savage and 12 other and the notion must have been familiar in early civilization. who was 13 fabled to become a virgin anew each year.
100.
In ancient art
she. 14 Preller's GriecMsche Mythologie. Preller.
7 8 10
11
251 sq. especially on Athenian coins. 377. is universal. and was revered as a virgin. 267. mother of Melicerta or Palaemon (=Melkarth and Baal-Ammon). and rude images of the sort are found among the most ancient terra8 Gaia. Id.
or a specific Goddess
is
4
abstracted from
the
primeval concept of the All-Mother. 493. whence a presumption that among the Semites Melkarth and Baal-Ammon were represented as Figures of a " Divine Mother holding her child in carried infants. p. 1908.
1
a
babe
— Hercules
or
Dionysos. " an attribute become a personality. Cp. 13 Pausanias.
12
. p. 4). 274. was also styled the Virgo Coelestis (Augustine. iv. Muller. Prolegomena.
often represented as suckling
the Babe-God. Pausanias. pp. 1162. and (severally) the nymphs Neda 10 The type. 2nd ed. GriecMsche Mythologie. 25. Monuments Ine"dits. 538. p. 1906. pp. The idea is ubiquitous. Ancient Art.
s 6
Cp. 47. Harrison. Cp. in which " the Mother " is the chief 11 symbol of the reproductive principle.
i. Miss mysticism which made Dimeter or Ceres. Leto had the same title. Id. 927) and in the same way bears Typhon (Homerid. To begin with. Nor was the appellation of " The Virgin " any more unfamiliar before than after Christianity in connection with Madonna-worship. Juno was identified with the Virgo Coelestis (Preller. the mother of all the Gods. and probably derives from a primitive presentment in the (or a) matriarchal period. Muller. though the mate as well as the mother of Jupiter. the most virginal Goddess of all. 430. and " seized with a love without passion for Attis" (Julian. Ancient Art. Ancient Art. Here bears Hephaistos " without having been united in love " (Hesiod. But it was given to Artemis. Eng. as to the concept of a Kourotrophos without other name. 71. Eng. In Etruscan and Grseco-Roman statuary. 269.
suckling
virginally. i. Muller. 402. pp. Mythology of the
i. p. Turner.
Ino Leucothea. viii. 1906. Cox. a virgin too. 1
Greece the name
3
who
Kovporp6<f>os* the boy-rearer. 493. 752. Juno (Here). Cybele. pp. in Rome.
28. 200 (impregnation by the sun). i. 326
. was sculptured holding the cotta figurines of Cyprus.
5 Cp. The Great Dionysiak
Myth. iv. note 3. O.
p. ii.
14
Isis
bears
Horus
being impregnated while
hovering in the form of a
2
p. 1884. again. Virgin-births occur in many mythologies. So.
. 2nd ed.'*
in turn bore in
The Earth Mother.
Lucretius. 5 the Roman Portumnus. 261-273. Pausanias. Ancient Art. c.. 68.168
"
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
" the many-breasted.
ii.ii. Hymn to Apollo). Cp. in and GEnoe were figured as carrying the babe Zeus. In Deorum Matrem. Muller. ix. 438-441 Winckelmann." or Ceres Mammosa. Ancient Legends of Roman History. Pausanias. Theogony." 4 K. fact.
Pausanias. 554. 7 her arms " are found in the remains of pre-Roman Carthage.
and Brown. Bomische Mythologie. 1865. 280. 135. 110). 9 K.
. the earth mother. p. 599. called
Mater Matuta by the Romans. 4). tr.
Aryan Nations. Babelon. p. 9 infant Dionysos or Erichthonios. 184. This myth often recurs. i. Eng. 38. Samoa a Hundred Years Ago. was 6 represented with her child in her arms. 34. 22. was represented as
. Equally transparent was the Cp. Manual of Oriental Antiquities. De Civitate Dei.

" " holding smaller figure or
child.
are
much
older than Christianity
New World
1
before the arrival of Christianity. who also was identified with the Virgo Coelestis. 41.
8 9
§ 4.
7
Written in
1889. 257. Muller. De Errore Profan. See the figure reproduced also in Lundy's Monumental Christianity. Ancient Art. 3 K. 1853. 3 with the sceptre and ball a form adopted by Christian art. as cited." though the deity of the former is to the full as certain as that of the. Fortune giving suck to the Child Jupiter.
.
Erman.
PAGAN PARALLELS
1
169
sparrow-hawk over the body of her slain husband. 16 6 Layard's Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon. O. in the labelling of which officialdom ventures so far as to
write " Figure of Female or Aphrodite. 34. Griechische Mythologie. end of the Egyptian Hall. 1907. i. are (or were) a number of similar outer figures. 474 Preller. was represented both as carrying a child and as having one before her. 246-7.
.
Similarly the Greeks
had statues of the abstract Virgins Peace and Fortune.
. at the latter.
We
know
that in
Rome
in the time of
the Republic a special worship
was paid by matrons
4
to the
image
of
a nursing mother. each carry5 ing Wealth (Plutus) as a child in her arms.
K."
—
the thought of fatherhood. 212. 477 Rawlinson's Herodotus. as last cited.
tr. Belig. may be seen 7
which
is
old Chaldsean figures of this kind.
. In a case of " Miscellaneous Objects from Assyria and Babylonia.. which were evidently cherished by multitudes. one of
described merely as a "female figure holding a child. De Divina5 Pausanias. i. p. Part IV. Lafitau. Muller. 8 Muller. Handbook of Egyptian Religion. It is agreed that the Goddess Alitta was 6 represented by such images and there are many specimens of similar ancient Eastern effigies of small size. too. a circumstance point-
9
ing to prehistoric derivation from Asia. though figures of the child-bearing Isis are traced to the earliest 8 periods of Egyptian religion.
. Mceurs des sauvages ameriquains. 547. For the rest."
while another female figure
is unhesitatingly labelled "female deity.
See Erman. We find the idea common in the
Beyond question
these popular "
. i. who could be called Virgins without any sense of anomaly. qui lactens cum Junone Fortunes in gremio sedens. p. Venus. ii. p. adpetens.
Eng. ix. There were abstract Divine Mothers. tione.
p.
7. On Roman 2 coins. 4 " Is est hodie locus septus religiose propter Jovis pueri. castissime colitur a matribus.
Pagan
Christs. Handbook
of
Egyptian
'Religion." in the Assyrian basement of the British
Museum. In another case of " Antiquities from Dali" upstairs. iv." Cicero."
Madonnas " of the East and it is even possible that they represent a Chaldaean cultus earlier than the Egyptian worship of Isis. since there was no " male of the Maternity had thus an elemental significance apart from species. 1724. O.
2
mammam
. 268 Firmicus. p.
Cp. and
holding at the same time the Child Juno. i. p. we know that in old Assyria or Chaldaea there was a popular worship of a child-bearing Goddess.

Even if there were no old Asian cultus.
Christian models they might equally well be borrowed from the Egyptian. and probable source for a remote and improbable one.evolved religious system.
one
of the sanest
criticism
—
to be that in
which he compares the delineations of Krishna at the breast of mother Devaki with Christian pictures of the Madonna lactans (the Madonna giving suck). are of very late date and further. Under one of the four is inscribed the name Lakshmi. as well as an excuse. under the protection of the serpent with seven heads. the Indian illustrations given by Weber." and so satisfy conservatives without having recourse to the questionbegging " Comparative Theology." If this term be adopted. suddenly became enamoured of the Christian presentment of Mary and Jesus this is to set aside all reasonable probability on no better pretext than a prejudice. it is very doubtful whether they all represent Devaki and Krishna. safety. to place it in Hardly one of the four recalls a Madonna lactans. Even from the engravings appended to his paper by Weber. administered by an exclusive priesthood. Devaki and Yacodha each lying on her bed. since it passes over an obvious. no
of or indifferent to all
for
many
centuries. the first strongly guarded. the emblem of Lakshmi. It is in the preface to his Outlines that he suggests the word "hierology " as a substitute for the cumbrous phrase. For in the
his
first
place
it is
not proved that the Indian representations are imitations of
. Christus en Krishna.
—
idea
multitude of portable Asian images. and equally the Christian." or to the solecismof " Comparative Religion.
The Horos
—
1 Let me offer a plea. In both the Goddesses have by them a lotos. 1877. but." which is
(
no more
2
than " Comparative Words" for "Comparative Philology. Another is held to stand for Lakshmi or Maya with Kamadeva. indeed.
anything
of
like universal. the might obviously have been derived from the Isis-figures of
Egypt before Christianity came into existence.
passes
In this connection an unanswerable
Tiele. 65. [Note. .]" 2
. which Professor Tiele himself has fathered. near.
1
on Weber's argument in the Dutch Theologisch Tijdschrift "One of the weakest points of his [Weber's] demonstration seems to me
hierologists. carries the child through the river. seeing that India was already in communication with Egypt before our era. we might when necessary say "Comparative Hierology "instead of "Comparative Mythology. Weber acknowledges that that is of very late date. for this most necessary term. p. And a third gives the whole legend. " Science of Religions. while the father of Krishna. when she had a highly. in the Theologisch Tijdschrift. of a child-bearing Goddess. To argue that India remained ignorant
Asian presentments of child-nursing Goddesses and at length. and both with that of Isis and Horos." Art.
sitting on the lotos was certainly borrowed by the Egyptians from Indian pictures and in return the Isis with the child Horos at her breast may well have been transported to India. the course of surmising a Christian origin for Indian effigies of Devaki nursing Krishna is plainly unscientific. it appears that other divine personages than Devaki and Krishna were figured as mother and child in Hindu art and mythology and the usage might perfectly well have prevailed in India before Krishnaism became
. Moreover.
justifiable
.:
170
CHEIST AND KRISHNA
This being so.

The Legend of Perseus.. for the birth of Ares. rejects the notion is that the birth was held supernatural. 249. 1908. 1910. There being
fairly clear proof that the Virgin
thus so
little
reason for surmising Christian influence in the matter. Before his descent into his mother's womb he was a deva. 89-95. mother of Oro.. 299.
and so much for discarding any such surmise. 2nd ed." Here we have perhaps the
its place. as Tiele urges.
leuses. 273). and P. If then Buddha was so early reputed Virgin-born. Primitive Paternity." he writes.PAGAN PABALLELS
lotos being
1
171
I cannot speak with Tiele's certainty as to the Horos-on-the-
borrowed from India but in any case there is no solid ground for assuming that the Indian cult. S.
when the
celebration of the birth alone
that he dates the Krishnaist borrowing of the Birth Festival from Christianity. Tiele puts this view tentatively. it is clear that. " did not ascribe to Gotama any divine birth in the Christian sense. was not as old as the Egyptian. 337. and Here. remark as to the Buddha birth-story which sets up some risk of mis1894. Ellis. xxiii. from Egypt before Christianity was heard of." But Christ also was held to exist from all eternity before his incarnation. may reasonably be held to have had the same distinction. Pleyte. Lilly (printed in the latter's Claims of Christianity. i. We have the decisive testimony of Jerome that in the fourth century the 4 Hindus were known to teach that their Buddha was born of a Virgin
j
—a
before."
most
striking
example
of
Weber's uncritical treatment
of Christian
1 In his History of the Egyptian Religion. by the touch of a flower. i. Krishna. pp.. . 5 Indian Antiquary. There is a Krishnaist custom in India of " name-giving on the festival day of Krishna's supposed birth and in answer to 5 criticism the Professor writes that " it is because the custom of the Egyptian Church of celebrating the birth and the baptism of Christ on the same day prevailed only from the second half of the fourth
. p. 42 (Migne. the Hindus could perfectly well have borrowed. As the mother of the Mexican Huitzilopochtli is impregnated by the touch of a ball of feathers. 326. 3 W. passim. Ueber die Erishnaj.
understanding. 1894. Polynesian Researches. in some form. shaken by the power of the Arm of 3 Taaroa. 52.
century
took
till
the year 431.. if they did borrow. Saintyves. Eng. 4 Aclversus Jovinianum. makes a
. In any case. who ranked as an incarnation of Vishnu before him. conceives him through the passing of the shadow of a bread-fruit leaf. Hartland. The idea of a Virgin-Mother-Goddess is prac2 tically universal. there is a fortiori a presumption against Weber's final contention as to the precise time of " borrowing. In India such a myth must have been prehistoric. Les vierges meres et les naissances miracu. that Buddhism borrowed from Christianity. tr. Professor Rhys Davids. p..
myth was current in India long Such a dogma could not have gained such vogue in the short time between Jerome and the beginning of Mary-worship. so in Tahiti the Goddess Hina. W. iv. 30). i. Patrologice Curstis Completus. " at the very time during which that custom peculiar to Egypt prevailed. " The Buddhists. The essential point Professor Davids. of course. as that of Dr. in a letter to Mr. 2 For a variety of myths of the kind cp.

c. x. and the 25th day of the month Pachon. ed. 280-2. (1) his nativity or incarnation (2) the appearance of the star. that is. Cp.' But before the time of the Council of Ephesus. .
Cana "And Cassian (Collat. Preller. that they asserted that Christ was born on the 24th or 25th of the month which the Egyptians call Pharmuthi. equally solar and Pagan in its character. To be sure. which denotes Christ's manifestation to the world in four several respects which were all commemorated upon this day " i. Christian Antiquities.
172
origins. in Baron. 216) has at large demonstrated. adopted the ancient solar festival of the 25th of December.
1
:
"For. The Western Church. an. the usage of the rest of the Church was itself an unquestionable adoption of a current Pagan one.
. The facts are collected by Bingham. vii. who points out that it is "a very great mistake in learned men" to say that Christ's birthday was always celebrated on 25th December by the churches
somehow impressed
mined
to adopt
it.
asks. and that it was rejected by the rest of the Church just because it was so obviously alien in its origin. or the 6th of January. 37. long after the time when the possibility of ascertaining any facts as to the birth of the alleged Founder had ceased. April he says a more remarkable thing (Id.
?
for only the short period
it
he speaks
Was
a mere freak
And if
were. Bomische Mythologie. as Mr.— —
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
Why. 20." 2
his divinity at
1
Julian. that they borrowed their peculiar usage from some other cult. Basnage (Exercit. 2) says expressly 'that in his time all the Egyptian provinces under the general name of Epiphany understood as well the nativity of Christ as his baptism. p. which signifies the month of May. i) says of the Basilidian heretics.. 755.
is it
reasonable to suggest
that this mere temporary provincial ecclesiastical freak in Christendom
the remote Brahmans so much that they deterand succeeded in grafting it on the Krishna cultus ever since ? Surely it is more reasonable to surmise that the Egyptian Christians were the borrowers. who were more curious about the year and the day of Christ's nativity. = Epiphany or manifestation to the Gentiles (3) the "glorious appearance" at Christ's baptism (4) the manifestation of
. adopted and for some time adhered to another date. But what is more considerable in this matter is that the greatest part of the Eastern Church for three or four of the first ages kept the feast of Christ's nativity on the same day which is now called Epiphany.e. one
came
it
.
.) of some others. But the Eastern Churches. does
he not inquire as to
how
the Egyptian
Christians
to adopt that peculiar usage of celebrating the birth
and baptism
of ?
of Christ
on one day.
p. then specially connected in the Empire with the widespread worship of Mithra. anno 431. not to mention what Clement Alexandrinus (Stromata. In
2
Begem Solem. influenced by the Egyptian and other preChristian systems. 1855. the Egyptians had altered the day of Christ's nativity It was not long before this that the Churches of Antioch and Syria came into the Western observation. c. which they said was in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus Csesar.

PAGAN PAEALLELS
173
. As a matter of fact. Christian Antiquities." which stands in the Calendar for August 7th. 32-33. What right then have we to suppose that India borrowed just such a usage all of a sudden from a short-lived borrowed practice of Eastern Christendom ? We have a distinct record that in connection with the ancient solar worship of Herakles among the Sicyonians. as the month of Krishna's birth
is
the
it
seventh in the solar year. 194. close on the date of the Krishna Birth-Festival ? Any one of these hypotheses would be as reasonable as that on which
1
2
8
Pausanias. there is
The Christian theory is hopeless. and which practises general 3 circumcision as well as general baptism on the day in question. Oriental. ii. as cited. in which the festival of the autumn equinox was originally connected with Mithra. It has been preserved down to modern times in the Church of Abyssinia. Neale.
All of this is abundantly proved from Epiphanius and Chrysostom and only a supernaturalist criticism can here fail to see that the usages of the Egyptian and Syrian Churches were imitative of pre-
existing Eastern
astronomico-theological cults. which has continued to receive its primate from the Church of Alexandria. 69-70. History of the Holy Eastern Church: Patriarchate of Alexandria. finally. 4 Bingham.
1823. who sacrificed lambs to the God.
Geddes. 10. p. Cp. Church History of Ethiopia." Hindu festival. citing
the Berhan-t
Katted. pp. 1696. the usage of general baptizing on Epiphany did not disappear from the Christian Church after the Council of Ephesus. ii.
. Jewish. iv. and the second Herakles' Day"] and there is surely good reason to presume that similar usages prevailed among other solar cults long before Christianity. If it is good for anyno need to restrict it to the chronological scheme of
Weber. after whom the first autumn-month (then current) is named. counting from the winter
solstice. for the month of Mihr is the seventh from the
beginning of the Persian year. Wait. from Why should not then the Hindu usage have been borrowed Abyssinia at a much later time than that at which the Alexandrian Church regarded Epiphany as the day of the Nativity ? Why indeed should it not have been suggested by the much more general custom 4 And in the early Church of reserving all baptisms for Easter-day? why. and Classical Antiquities. should it not have been suggested by the Catholic 11 Festival of the Name of Jesus. 1847.
Is
pretended that the Persians borrowed their usage from the Christians ? If not. In the old Persian system. " the first of the days of the Feast which they keep to 1 Herakles they call Names. why should the Hindu usage not be as old as the Persian and
the Greek
?
thing. 347. it was "auspicious at this season to name children 2 Here we have a close correspondence to the and ivean babes.

. and as unreasonable.
instructive
A more
Weber's
argument
the Krishna Birth-Festival. without his mother. on the other hand the Mother comes very prominently into the foreground. ment that
of
the God's birth.
at the time
it
of the composition of the
He
decides that
must have
done. playing a principal role. Wilson." 1
That
is
to say. the author in whom
book. he mentions. the more so because even in that there appears in time a tendency to suppress this side.
is
told
in
detail
in
1-8. There is there no suggestion of a Birth-Festival. In the Birthday Festival.
part
of
The whole
concerning
a mistake.
end
of the fourteenth
century of our era
—about a
:
. except as regards quite modern MSS.
CHEIST AND KEISHNA
fastened
Weber has
theory
is
—as reasonable.
raises the question
whether the Birth-Festival existed
Purana.
. I do not hesitate here to recognize a quite peculiarly ancient phase of the Festival. while at the
time the Purana was written the cult ran to the glorification of the
God
himself. 3. he declares.
1
Ueber die Krishnajammdshtami. and the celebration of his exploits. as
now
observed in India. consists in
showing that no trace
as the Puranas. entirely fails. and Bournouf ascribe the composition of the Purana as it now stands. for he is here represented as still a suckling at his mother's breast. the
Purana ignores the Festival because that preserves
the old practice of honouring the Mother of the God. to
That was about the thousand years after the period at which the Professor thinks the Hindus borrowed their Festival usage from Alexandria.
The time Book x. and this he considers the more curious because this Purana. but because the grammarian Vopadeva. was contemporary with Hemadri. which is chiefly concerned with Krishna's love affairs. and in which the Mother of the God passes progressively into the background. not on account of internal evidence proving the lateness of the
whom Colebrooke. He might thus well decide that the usage existed before Vopadeva and he offers an explanation of the silence of the Purana on the subject
first find specific
we
mention
of the Festival. but without a date. pp.
little
To
this explanation
there can be
objection. and to give the tribute of the Festival to the God alone.
It is
conceived in the historical spirit
240-2. and at midnight and he
.
An
of it is to be found even in such late literature attempt to find authority for it in the Bhagavat
Purana.—
174
.
and in particular the tenth book. save
it
was under the
star
what is implied in the stateBohinJ. while of the love affairs of Krishna no notice is or indeed can be taken. is the peculiar text-book of the Krishna sect.
"In the Bhagavat Purana is presented the modern development of the Krishna cult.

ed. after a certain time. the frame of mind in regard to narratives of the lives of the Gods would be exactly that of the early Christians who manipulated the first and second gospels.
nizing that the Festival preserves an old popular
which changed
slowly than the poetic recitals of the God's exploits. Trevelyan's Life. Besides. Macaulay.
which manuscripts are not abundant and the knowledge of There is overwhelming internal evidence of the manipulation of the Christian Gospels and the reason why. It is implied above that the Puranas represent the literary development of mythic lore but this does not mean that even their contents are not mainly made up of matter that in some form long antedates our era. when earlier copies were authoritatively collated. writes me that it has to be locked up in an air-tight box during the wet season. otherwise it would be destroyed. 181-2. p. derived from old Greek political usage. and History of Indian Literature. Ant. 246. there is good reason to believe that late redactions would often take in floating popular myths of great antiquity. Brig. should yet decide that even the popular rite was originally borrowed
much more
from the new western religion of Christism by a people who rated own religious and historic antiquity high before Christianity was heard of. of meeting in Councils. Cp. no manuscript lasted long Weber has pointed out how unfavourable is the 1 Indian climate to any such preservation. and that this one forgery was ultimately accepted by the entire Western Church from
about 1550 down to the eighteenth century. 30.
. iii. Our every-day nursery
: . But it would be fallacious in the extreme \o argue that a late redaction meant late invention on the contrary. A friend in Burma. In fine. while thus recogrite. For this view. And even as it
in
:
was. which had merely missed being committed to writing before. The absolute preservation of an ancient document in its integrity. There was no such thing as a canon or a received text there was no " apostolic " tradition there were no religious councils no scholars whose business it was to compare manuscripts. 323. Berlin lecture.
. p. tr. modern research in Folk Lore should have prepared all investigators.PAGAN PAEALLELS
and the only perplexity
is
175
that Professor Weber. 1-vol. to whom I had sent a book. Now. we know that so late as the fifth century the text of the " three witnesses " was fraudulently inserted in 1 John v. the re-composition of sacred narratives would be a perfectly natural course.
. unless it be a matter of rote-learned
their
.
. is not to be looked for in a state of civilization
reading general.
ritual like the Vedas. pp. was just the multiplicity of the copies. and compiled the third and fourth. their text became substantially fixed. in India down till recent times. and the ecclesiastical habit.
1 Ind.

The star Eohini under which he was born. See Ovid's explanation and that of Macrobius (Saturnalia.
Now. has the name given in one variation of the Krishna legend to a wife of Vasudeva who bore to him Kama." Cp. cited by Keightley in his ed.176
CHEIST AND KEISHNA
fables are found to be in substance as old as the art of story-telling. came
Krishnaism was
is
to be specialized for
Christians
.
and
it is
clearly not only possible but likely that every
in vogue in other Indian In these matters there is
astrological festival of
worships before Krishnaism prevailed.
is
the omission to date
beginning in the record
in Christianity. by the magistrates or priests. 16). of the Fasti. Stativce and Conceptivce. i.
favour of
Suppose the
its
be the oldest datum in the case. Eohini (our Aldebaran) is " the " a mythical name also applied now to Aurora. which was not written down.
just what would would have been 25th December in
but they did not do because that was so notoriously a festival of extreme 8 antiquity. I. On the failure of the harvest she planned that the messengers sent to consult the oracle should bring the answer that Phrixos. now to a star. 2 Barth."
We
have seen
in the case of Christianity
how
a universal astro-
logical festival. should be sacrificed (Apollodoros. i. There were fixed and unfixed festivals. there is no shadow
festival
of reason for supposing. of which the latter were "annually given out.
older than literature. But the story of the dried seed." 3 red. looking for the date of the old Sementivse or Festival of Sowing.
The very
festival to
fact that
no account
tells in
is
given in
its
the older Puranas of the rise of the festival
antiquity. 1). where the birth connects with the rise of the constellation Virgo.
just
But the most
singular matter in regard to Weber's
argument
is
1 This holds good even if we recognize in myths of menaced divine children an idea of the dangers run by the planted seed before it ripens. as Devaki (sometimes held to be the mother of Eama also) bore Krishna. Golden Bough. Here we are in the thick of ancient astrological myth. 303. sought to destroy the children of the first wife Nephele (the Cloud).
happen
—
just
what happened
It
a simple matter for the early Christians to insert
their records as the date of their God's birth
so.
. of
immemorial antiquity.?iofe. the second wife of Athamas. for certain or even uncertain days.
. and the simple fact that the Purana gives an astronomical moment for Krishna's birth is a sufficient proof that at the time of writing they had a fixed date for it. Some such idea is suggested in the myth that Ino. Religions of India.
But
that a
Hindu
connected with the star-name Eohini and the birth of Krishna should be borrowed from Christianity. 657) that he went three or four times through the official list of festivals. 173. p. 1st ed. Frazer. the son of Nephele.
really
no invention
:
there
only readjustment. And the birthday of Krishna may have been that of another God before him. it will be remembered.wheat looks like a late fancy framed in elaboration of Ino's plot. in vain. 3 It is worth while in this connection to recall the statement of Ovid in his Fasti (i. as old as religion.
it is
a
common
rule in ancient
1
mythology that the
birth-
days of Gods were astrological. by telling the women of the land to dry the wheat before sowing it. ix.

1866.
N
. 524-5. Astronomical festivals. in any case. " Even Mr. pp.
If the
a critic can thus make Krishna Birth-Festival
were borrowed. but in the
month
of July. Supposing the division in question to have been derived by the Hindus from the Akkadians. Sayce. It is the white Sun-God who is born at Christmas. the most strenuous opponent of the claims of the Hindus " to an extremely ancient knowledge of astronomy.
1
That
is
to
corresponds not with Christmas but with the Egyptian festival of " the Birthday of the Eyes of Horos. pp. i.
it
in January. and is only spoken of incidentally " in a parenthesis. c. 52. centuries before the first traces of systematic astronomy in Greece. Hibbert Lectures. And see hereinafter. Isis and Osiris. 2 Plutarch. which
was the
last
day
Egyptian year. p. the argument remains the same. 529-530. But on this head it should be noted that the death of the Sun-God Tammuz (Adonis) was celebrated in different climates at different times. § 15. as last cited. As he says in answer to a criticism. 3 So the proposition is that
pre-Christian festival. indeed. But doubtless Gubernatis could explain the midsummer birth of the black Sun-God in terms of solar mythology. why should the borrowers select a midsummer instead of a midwinter date for their importation ? Why.. and Frazer. the Hindus must have had from 5 a very remote antiquity and every argument from analogy in
. midwinter or midsummer) plays no part at all in my discussion. if it only occurred to them late in the day to give him a birthday. 249. iv.
the Hindus celebrated the birthday of Krishna in July by way of imitating the Christian fashion of celebrating Christ's nativity in
January.
Yet
never occurs to
Weber
to connect the Krishnaite Birth-Festival with this purely
Pagan and
Indeed one may go through Weber's treatise without discovering what the date in question is. on one of the other Krishnaist festivals ? I have not noticed that the Professor theorizes on the origin of these but their probably astronomical origin is surely important to the argument. should they not place their God's birthday. but this appears to be an error. " The date itself (December or July. probably resulting from Professor Weber's omission to lay stress on the date in his standard treatise.
3 4
5
Indian Antiquary. 1889. On Vedic festivals see Max Muller's Natural Religion. As the historian Elphinstone has pointed out. ed. when the Sun and the Moon
are
come
into one straight line
"2
—a
festival held
the Egyptian
month Epap
of the
or Epiphi or
Emphi = 24th
it
on the 30th day of July. Myth. 51) it is customary "towards the end of to give presents of cows " in celebration of the new solar year.
One
is
at a loss to
understand
how
so light of such an important item. Bentley. p. 140. " pronounces in his latest work that their division of the ecliptic into twenty-seven lunar mansions (which supposes much previous 4 observation) was made 1442 years before our era" that is. or the birth of the pastoral God Krishna".
—
December "
1 According to Gubernatis {Zool.
PAGAN PARALLELS
the fact that the date of the Krishna Birth-Festival
is
177
neither in
December nor
say. Natural Religion. 232. See Max Miiller. History of India.

lasts three days.
date of the Makara-Sankranti. or the sun's entrance into the sign Capricornus.:
178
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
now
popular seasonal
history goes to support the view that their
festivals are prehistoric. however. this was 1181 B. identical with the Uttarayana. in fact. 30. on
a luni-solar and therefore variable date connected
with the vernal equinox. 104. Hermes. The points of resemblance are numerous and suggestive. which falls somewhere in the course of March. H. or Perum Pongal. ii. Makara-Sankranti. still in force. as cited. 189.
" The new year of the luni-solar computation now in use [in India] begins with the first of Chaitra. and in solar reckoning is said to agree with the entrance of the sun into the sign Mesha. Historical View Astronomy. p. and
in Christianity is associated with the sacrifice of the
God. and is properly to be traced to the relative Of position of the figures in the fuller zodiac or celestial sphere. 1835-6.
H. 4 Wilson." 4
The Indian and European dates do not actually correspond with us 21st December is the time of the sun's entering Capricorn. which
in the Mithraic
system
2
was the
as a
new
day.C. Works. Wait.
" There was. And when we compare a few of their usages with those of Christianity.
—
—
course the solar element
The is manifest in the Hindu usage. symbolized
Lamb.
and that some of them may even be derived from Dravidian or pre-Aryan practice. Note by Wilson. Beligious Festivals of the Hindus. a reverse historic process. or Aries" 1
—
that
is. while the Hindus put it on the first of their But the astronomical motive solar month Magha=12th January.
or. a period at
which a
the
different principle
was followed 3
the
the
new year then commenced on
first of
the solar
month Magha. and that the day after the sun's entering Capricorn is termed Mattu Pongal. to
the winter solstice.
is explicit
.
. Wilson.
1
2
3
of
Hindu
5
Origine de tous
les Cultes. or return of that luminary to the regions of
the north. is dedicated to the day of the sun. or the feast of cattle. as cited. or give up his theory altogether and look for.
and when we note that this old festival. we see a new confir5 mation of the argument of Dupuis that the myth of a Christian God being born in a stable (which corresponds so strikingly with many other myths of Gods as Krishna. it becomes plain that we must either suppose them to have borrowed a great deal more than Professor Weber says. and the day of the Mattu Pongal to Indra they are both
. 159.
the sign of the
"
Ram
or
Lamb. vii. Herakles born or brought up among cattle) is really at bottom or by adaptation astronomical or zodiacal. ed. if anything. the sign of the Goat. According to Bentley. p." the creation day. and the greatest festival.

413. and Dr. i. p.
It is not argued. 206 History of Greek Literature."
4
This holds true for every religion
in the case of Christianity
we
shall
and if we apply the principle make an end of more pretences
.. passim. the sprinkling of them with water. and Grote. O. The Progress of the Intellect. tr. ii. xxvi. p. 3 j#. p. which is an anniversary festival of a 1 week's duration. p 175. 210-211 A. 171. goats.] But. no student can well
tended swine. 1890. as cited. 1858.
really originated. See it also laid down by Kenrick. pp 173-9. in which they worshipped Neptune. The Golden Bough." " A myth is never so graphic and precise in its details as when it is a simple transcript of a ceremony which the author of a myth witnessed with his eyes" (Work last cited.
cattle
— at
—cows.
. p. The Religion of tlie Semites." 3
. that they may be exempt from evils.
believe that the
Roman
Catholic usage
St.
Rome on
:
Let Professor Wilson testify
—
Anthony's day (January
" The time of the year. R. 161. pp. Eng. 35. i. and were he asked what ceremony he witnessed. 1850. the decorating of the cattle. Ancient Egypt. that Roman Christianity borrowed its from India on the contrary. 172. 1st ed. Professor Robertson Smith.
blessing the
St. Etudes de Mythologie et Archceologie grecques. This maxim of interpretation (see above."
2
that between the
But there is no more remarkable correspondence than Hindu practice of honouring the cattle at this time
of
and the strange Catholic function
horses. there can be no doubt of his answer he would at once declare they were celebrating the Pongal. [An unwarranted negative. W. Poseidon. end of ch. or January. "No people ever observed a custom because a mythical being was said to have once acted in a certain way.
1
. Bertrand. 1850. 175. 19.
. in the fact that
Anthony
To-day
These are the theories
of the
Dark Ages. Eng. 287-8.
Now. pp. The Roman Catholic celebration of
2 j#. 1889. and to K. Muller: Orchomenos. Introduction to a Scientific System of Mythology (1825). several of the usages in this and other Hindu festivals are traceable in Europe in non-Christian as well as " The Greeks had a festival in the month in Christian times. MacKay.
. or the Sea. as the fable tells. 1810-12). 246). on the contrary. and the very purport of the blessing. for the ritual was fixed and the myth was variable the ritual was obligatory. are so decidedly Indian. Miss Harrison. tr." Now. of
ritual usages direct
course. p. the presumption is that these usages were even more widespread than the " Aryan race" in pre-historic times. Wilson. that could a Dravira Brahman be set down of a sudden in the Piazza. Rennes. and not the ritual from the myth . 411.
4
. etc
17th).
PAGAN PARALLELS
179
comprised in the term Pongal. i. 11) dates back to Creuzer (Symbolik.
even semi-orthodox scholarship decides that " So far as myths consist of explanations of ritual their value is altogether secondary
and
the
it
may
be affirmed with confidence that in almost every case
myth was derived from the ritual. xxxiii. 1844.
the worshipper. Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Atliens. by the way. asses.
than that as to the borrowing of Christian practices by Krishnaism. Cp. in like manner as the Hindus [at the same time] worship the
ocean. 1820. 128. Frazer. pp. 195. and faith in the myth was at the discretion of
. all peoples have invented myths to explain why they observed certain customs.

as to argue that the Krishna Birth-Festival is similarly derived. celebrating the Gopi revels. with more or less licence. citing the Bhavishyottara Purana. i. would appear to obtain also at Krishnaite festival of three or five days' duration in the month Shravana=Julyanother August. There was a " swinging festival " in ancient Greece 4 and this too has survived to modern times. xxxix-xliii. of Moor's Hindu Pantheon."
2 3
. The 17th of March was the date of the Liberalia in Rome and licence was the note of the festival. Krishna). pp.
The further we
collate the
main Christian myth-motives with
it
those of Krishnaism. the " swinging festival.
§
11. Letter from Rome. Fasti. what reason is there to surmise that conservative and custom-loving India came to Alexandria for the hint to Krishnaism has a celebrate the astrological birthday of Krishna ? number of festivals of which no proper account seems yet to be accessible in England. ed. . 663. it is explained that many of the Hindu festivals have been displaced.
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
Anthony's day probably derives from the ancient Paganalia or which the cattle were garlanded at this very season of the year and it is possible that even the modern name came from that of one of the Antonines.
180
St. 221. p. instead
Ovid. which depends on a particular conjunction of the star Rohini (Weber. Cp. 4 Miss Harrison. xiv. in the months of Jyeshth and Asharh." which begins about the middle of March (Phalguna) and lasts as a rule fifteen days. 5 So called because of the ritual practice of swinging an image in a chair. In a note to Wilson's Select Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus (1835. pp. Rev. . transferred to festivals appi*opriated to Krishna alone. pp. In the month Kartika= OctoberNovember. that given in Balfour's Indian Cyclopcedia being so inexact that one is at a loss to know whether in some cases different festival-names do not apply to one and the same feast. at least. 10. 262-3). In the large British towns it is or was restricted to three days on account of the liberties taken but among the Rajputs it is or was the practice to celebrate 2 it for forty days. 139-144. ii.. Simpson's ed. Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens. O. or as old as. according to Balfour's Ind. 1741. xv-xix and 141-143. and in Bengal. cp. the more clearly does
1
appear that. On this I can find no exact information. there is yet another festival.
The Solar-Child Myth. This I take to be either the Birth Festival proper or the special form of it called Jayanti. W. Middleton. June-July. Athenseus. the ancient celebration of the Dionysia or Liberalia in honour of the Sun. But it is clear that there is one great Dolu or Dola Yatra festival. But this practice. agricultural festivities in
!
. Now this practice has certainly an astronomical or seasonal origin and is as certainly akin to. Cyc. It would be just as reasonable to derive the Indian 5 "swinging festival" of the vernal equinox from the Christian celebration of the rising of Christ from the dead.
Feriae Seinentivae. and "the Dola Yatra and Rath Yatra have also been displaced. pp. (art. 264). Thus a festival once named the Holika is now termed the Dola Yatra (or "swinging of the Gods"). But if Christianity is thus seen deriving its festival days from immemorial custom. .and Wine-God among the Greeks 3 and Romans. 1864.

it was the subject Now. but
. king of the Medes.
go.
named Cambyses.
A
year after her marriage. while they actually reared the prince as their own When the child grows child. but gives the command
ii. however. his wife and they agreed to
. resolving to destroy whatever should be born of her the Magi having signified that his dream meant that her offspring would reign in his stead."
When
had
give
just been delivered of a still-born child
the herdsman got home.
up
its
body
to
Harpagus as that
of
the young prince.
i.
insurrection
1
Later Harpagus secretly helps Cyrus to make an Astyages impales the Magi.
in question is extremely familiar in ancient legend
and nothing is more unsatisfactory in the modern discussion of Krishnaite origins than the way in which this fact has been overlooked. having had a remarkable" (and Rabelaisian) dream about his daughter.
107-130. as told by Herodotus.
. sent for one of the king's cowherds.
History of Himlostan. the child was clothed in " gold and a
robe of various colours. All the same. dead
from exposure. and causes a disobedient playfellow to be scourged. they
dramatic representations before our era. Astyages.
2
B. which portended great
things of her progeny. Astyages punishes Harpagus by causing him unknowingly to eat the flesh of his own child but is told by the Magi that as his dream has been already fulfilled in the coronation of Cyrus by the village children.
boys as their king. This Astyages discovers. follows. We have seen how Professor Weber concedes that the story of King Kansa's killing of Devaki's earlier children in the attempt to kill Krishna is not only
pre-Christian but of old mythic standing.
safely let
him
. gave her in marriage to a Persian of private
station.
the originals from which Christianity borrowed. he had a still more alarming dream.THE SOLAR-CHILD MYTH
of the latter being
181
are. the myth -motive
. Over a 1 hundred years ago Maurice called attention to the parallel between infancy and that of the infancy of Cyrus the the story of Krishna's 2 The story about Cyrus is briefly as Great. he may
. he of course reveals royal qualities in the village in which the ox stalls were " he is chosen by the other
'
. The
.
not indeed always preand in one or two cases they do sumptively the more ancient appear to be possible sources of Gospel stories. shrank from the act.
when she
was pregnant. and while playing to boyhood.
478.
officer
(Harpagus) whom he entrusted with the task. and the story comes out. giving him another name than Cyrus. and that
of
borrowed from the former. whereupon he sent to Persia for her and put her under a guard. and ordered him to expose the child on a mountain abounding in wild beasts. Mitradates.

Sir H. whom his mother. for which her father seeks to starve her to death.
viii.
and
it is
explained that this
arose of Cyrus being suckled by a bitch
recalls the story of
—a
is how the story myth which at once
. 312. of Telephos. 134. but without killing his grandfather. of Ion.
79. Hartland. plainly the
many-tinted cloud-
drapery of the Sun. 102.182
of his troops to
CHEIST AND KEISHNA
.
ii. the story of the exposure of the infant hero is plainly cognate with the legends of the exposure of Eomulus and Eemus. anim. ii. of iEsculapius. Hymn to Zeus. 26. 64. 5
And
the robe " of
many
colours "
is. Apart from these details. then. 25. suckled by the she-goat Amalthea.
and parts
of the tale are
of the massacre of the found closely paralleled in the
northern legend of British Arthur. Be nat. 2 Here. who betrays him and Cyrus reigns. The daughter is isolated but the inevitable man arrives. beginning. reared by the Magnesian centaur. Artaxerxes. 6 The child Arthur. the river-nymph Nana.
. of Cybele. and the prophecy is fulfilled by the child's growing up to slay the king. of Iamos.
sun.
5 6
7 9
Callimachus. 1902. Attis.
3
in its Persian form. ii. and like him is 7 secretly sent to be suckled by one not his mother. Pindar. Pythia. like Cyrus. of Attis. in another myth. The Legend of Perseus. suckled by a she-goat and protected by a watch-dog 9 or. certain primeval mythical details are seen modified to suit history. 49.
44. 4 Again.
1
Diodorus Siculus. p. 6-7. is
. we have an old myth. An African version of the story is lately reported from Uganda. Zoological Mythology.
1882. and the historic Cyrus simply
sun-legend. of
Semiramis. Malory's Morte cV Arthur. is robed in gold. 77.Elian. 8 is found by Autolaus and nursed by Trygon (=" the turtle-dove ") or. i. with modifications. In the older
mythology iEsculapius. Plutarch. iii. See .
have been crucified by an Amazon queen of Scythians. bears after impregnation by a miraculous pomegranate. exposed as a child.
The name Cyrus.
. in yet another. A wizard warns a king that his daughter will bear a child who will bring destruction upon him.
Harpagus. pp. xii. the circumstances of whose exposure
are so strikingly recalled
by the Jesuist story
innocents
. ed.
2 See above. Gubernatis. The
. however. as well as in that of (Edipus. Mythology of the Aryan Nations.
.
like Joseph's coat. A similar story appears to have been told of the hero Gilgames in the old Assyrian mythology. including Moses. in which already. Cox.
Uganda
3
4
Protectorate. suckled by a she-wolf and that of Jupiter.
Eomulus and Eemus. Herodotus tells. of a dozen other myth-heroes. 21 and cp. Johnston. ii. Id. iii.
8
Pausanias. 594-5. chap. the secret message from Harpagus in Media to Cyrus in Persia is sent enclosed in the body of a hare an animal which in early mythology
—
repeatedly plays the part of a message-bringer. Of Cyrus' death. 1 there were many accounts and in one of these he is declared to
.
was or stood for that of the had fathered on him the popular Thus the herdsman's wife's name
means
" the bitch ".

vi. with her child. viii. Aleus. is born secretly. viii. 7. Pausanias.
. 42. bearing the twins Zethos and Amphion to Zeus and Epopeos. At times. Hiding him in a cave. Hist. as happens to the by a goat. Lang's admission in regard to the Moses myth. 9. son of Apollo. 18. v. son of Thyestes and Palopea. 14 See Mr. as in the case of Saturn. Antiope.
3 5
Arnobius. 102. 7 ii. is exposed on the mountain Ostracina. Sayce. viii. slays the children borne to him by Megara. i. is exposed as an infant by her father on the mountain Cybelus. ff 12 iElian. 10 u Pindar. she puts
subject
his
. as cited. 12. her father.. or a and at the same time Aleus gives Auge to goat.
2
Semiramis
(" Istar in
. hidden in the rushes. Even Herakles. his mother. i. Auge and Nauplius to be sold or drowned. 6. is the
14
Abraham. Ion.
dragons feed him with honey. like Danae and Perseus. 13 Pausanias. 12. 60.
. and his mother Auge hides him in the temple of Athene.
2
6
Pausanias. 8 9 Euripides.
is
Exposed
found by sheep-dogs
and
13
killed. 1. p. Mli&n. Pausanias. who 10 So the prophet-child Iamos. 54.
In an Arab legend of mother hides him at birth because the astrologers and wise men have declared that according to their books a child is to be born who will destroy the worship of idols and overthrow King Nemrod and the king accordingly gives orders to destroy all the male children who may be born. 43. Alkimedon. of which she is priestess. and is 5 suckled by panthers and other wild beasts.27. a sea in a chest. 48. 4. by her father. where two azure-eyed
possible prey to beasts
birds.
1
Pausanias.
is
goatherd. Semele and Dionysos. 17.
11
babe borne to Apollo by Psamathe. Apollodoros.
and
9
And so Priam's son Alexander was nourished by a she-bear. Pausanias. Apollodoros. son of Herakles.
The wish
specific
of the
of
bad king
to slay the hero-child. p. 4 iii. it
of Crotopus. Telephos. Var. 271. Diodorus Siculus. cited above. 58. and they are found by a shepherd.
4 1
Kings
xvii. leaves them in a 6 grotto in swaddling clothes.
THE SOLAR-CHILD MYTH
exposed by the father's orders. in frenzy. 17. iii. and JEgisthus. is left by saves them. ii.
vii. 12 Very rarely is the divine child slain. the father himself is the would-be slayer. after bearing Aichmagoras to Herakles.
. 38. 4. or a goat. 6. are put to the child. Olymp. Evadne. Hibbert Lectures. who dwelt there in a cave and the call of a jay draws to them the attention of Herakles. as Elijah is nourished for many days by ravens 4 in the Hebrew myth. causes him to be exposed on the Parthenian (Virgin) Mount. 8 Ion is placed by his mother in the rock-cave.
So Phialo. xii. citing Timotheus. and
1
183
found and nourished by a 3 another guise" ) was fabled to have been exposed for a whole year in the desert and nourished by doves. or by shepherds 7 In a composite version. again. finding the child. ii. Cybele. 6. where he is nourished by a doe.
many more myths. daughter by her for fear (as usual) of her father. daughter of Maion and Dindyma.

Zoul Qarnei'n and the prophet Solomon. is found to have been reared under difficulties. As the Moses myth is duplicated in the myths of Cyrus5 and Horus. 33. finally becomes tyrannos of Corinth (Herodotus.
Augustus in his lifetime. leaps into the sea with her child. is driven from place to place by the jealous hate of Here. 9 In another version. In the Greek pantheon. found dead. is sent by his father to a secluded island. hero " Neither after hero. Homerid. Zeus himself in his infancy is stolen away by the Curetes from fear of his father Kronos (Saturn) and nursed by the nymphs Ithome and Neda 12 while in the more
of
.
I. As the story further makes the mother hide Cypselus in a chest (icv\J/{\r]).
iv. Semele. mother of Melicerta (Melkarth). he is excited by Here to go against the Tyrrhenian 11 pirates. 2 Bochart. and who. is buried and the wandering Io (who in the common myth is a cow) rears the child in a cave.
3
Revue de I 'Histoiredes Religions. and unquestionably preceded by the myth of Sargon. who has killed her previous child Learchus and the two are saved by 7 Nereids. 94. have I heard that the children sprung from the Gods among mortals have a happy life. 1. and guarded by the virgin Goddess Athene from the jealous wrath of Rhea.184
CHEIST AND KRISHNA
a stone at the mouth and there suckles him. 22. 70. xxii. vol. God after God. without the knowledge 1 even of her husband Azer. Apollodoros. son of Ammon and Amalthea.
68. ii. 4 See the Frotevangelion. Nemrod and Bacht en Naser (Nebuchadnezzar). pregnant with Apollo. The same story is told by the Arabs 2 concerning Daniel. iv.
iii.
11.
9
10
Diodorus Siculus." and dwells at Babylon.
n
Euripides. i. Hierozoicon. it is pretty clear that his name had pointed the myth-makers to a current myth in which a child so figures. As showing the medley of ideas in mythology.
iii. Aug. Hymn to Delos. who bears Dionysos to Zeus. they having failed to kill him. Cyclops.
1
:
6
7
Vv. 44 Ovid." Ino. No.-Aout). 3 Suetonius. ix. 6 in pictures nor in story. and changed by Poseidon into sea-deities. 5 There is a further echo of it in the story of the infant Cypselus. Hymn to Delian Apollo. c. Nemrod rules "the seven zones. p. 10 In another legend. . pt." says the chorus in the Ion of Euripides.
Pausanias. 57 (1890. 8 The infant Dionysos. i. . the wife of Ammon. Callimachus. who were in all likelihood merely freshening up two immemorial forms of popular religion in Syria. In point of fact there is hardly a leading detail in the Krishna birth legend which is not variously paralleled in other early nonChristian mythology. v. 1.
. as by the Jews concerning Moses it was told
.. and it was told at once of John and 4 of Jesus by the early Christists.
. 55 if. is spirited away with her child in a chest by Cadmus the chest is thrown in the sea and cast ashore Semele. 3. who capture him. 23.
24.
. it may be noted that in this story the world is ruled at the time by four sovereigns two unbelievers. cc. 93). 506-8. it would seem sufficiently idle to suppose later variants to be derived from the New Testament. 489-550 Metam.
8
Pausanias. : . Fasti. Juil. Leto. . to save him from his furious father Athamas. 2. 511-541. Similarly. and two believers.
12
Pausanias. concerning whom the oracle warned the oligarchs of Corinth that he would be dangerous to them. vi.

For instance.
9). Wilson's trans. 7 Sayce. and who in 1 turn overthrows his father. 14 So thoroughly did this particular notion possess the human intelligence in antiquity that it was grafted on the biography of the
: :
:
Hesiod. i. Yet again. 9 Horn. and in the cave-worships of Adonis and Mithra.
.). In yet another story. and in this case she gives 2 Kronos a foal to eat. Saturnalia. 40. 9 Hermes. 3 Pausanias. 8 Apollo. Hymn to Delian Apollo 103-32. Again. p. i. In PseudoMatthew. 86-7. 17. Here in one story exposes the child 3 Hephaistos. is turned into a she-bear by Artemis. 4. " whilst yet in his mother's womb. Clermont-Ganneau this myth is accounted for as a Greek attempt to explain an Egyptian vase-picture of Horus holding the two serpents.
18. 20. in whose epitaph we have " My mother the princess conceived in a secret place she brought me forth. And yet we are asked to believe that an Indian variant of this myth. 8. we note a variety of parallels in regard to which there can be no pretence that Christianity is borrowed from.
See
cc. whom she brings forth in a distant place and rears in a cave. Last cit. Nem. Hibbert Lectures. She placed me in a basket of reeds She gave me to the river which ". Pindar. Carrying the comparison further. 54-63. 14
xv. 18. c. Callimachus. i. iEsculapius narrowly escapes 4 being burned alive with his mother Coronis. 3-4. iii. p.
§ 7.THE SOLAE-CHILD MYTH
familiar story
will dispossess
185
Kronos devours his children successively. fab. spoke to his father and asked him to go and buy two spears and a shield for him. 13-14. 5 Macrobius. 13. Hymn to Hermes. makes Apollo speak in the womb.
Pseudo-Matthew. Part III.
etc. which he swallows in place of the new-born Jupiter. By M. 8. it was applied to Sargon. 10 and 1 12 Jesus. he is " deposited with the flocks and fed with the lambs ". The idea passed. Pausanias. closely resembling one current in Persia ages before Christ. Callisto.
Protevangelion. c. as Cyrus overthrows Astyages. is wholly or partly borrowed from the Christian Gospels. p. and Hermes has to be sent to save the child.
:
Cunningham. Hymn to Delos. 8 Vishnic Purdna. all alike speak immediately after birth. 9. 26. when Arcadian Ehea bears Poseidon. 11 Koran.
. Needless to speak of 5 the serpents sent by Here against Apollo and Artemis and the 6 infant Herakles. 12 In the folklore of Uganda the Hero-God Katwimpla. Pausanias. 6 Pindar. Jesus at birth stands on his feet. and the battling of the young Horos against Typhon the myth is universal. Sura xix (lviii)— " Mary " Arabic Gospel of the Infancy. Ages before Cyrus. 21 (xii. 10 Horn. 140. ii. 477-491 Pausanias. i. canonical and apocryphal. Theogony. till Ehea his wife gives him a stone wrapped in cloth. 7 and again we have it in the myths of Horos drowned me not and Moses.
1
2
4
. from mythology to real biography.
Pagan
Christs.
3. bearing Areas to Jupiter. Hyginus. 1905. 6."
.
Arabic Gospel of the Infancy. fearing they him. 17. Uganda and
13
14
its Peoples. the story of 13 the God being born in a cave is anticipated in the case of Hermes and Dionysos.
5
(i. Pythia. viii. 29. 2. viii. 502. 26. Krishna. as we have seen.

Tales of this character were scattered broadcast during the Han Dynasty by men who delighted in the mysteries of geomancy. saying This is a heavenborn. above recapitulated and the various accounts of his games with his comrades. where she gave him birth that genii had announced to her the honour her son would bring her.
. 7).
1 Douglas's Confucianism. Marvellous tales have always exerted a sort of fascinating influence over the minds of the Chinese people both in ancient and in modern times. of the devas or bright Gods. given by a Chinese scholar to the " Parliament of Religions":—"I once looked up the derivation of the word 'sing (surname). who was called the Son of Heaven on this account the character sing is made up of two parts— 'me' (woman) forming the one part.
went to a cave on Mount Ne. to be the product of man." The Hon. in obedience
philosopher Confucius. Chips.
'
'
'
. as above noted. The view that Astyages=
Azidahaka. the philologist. representing the five planets. and 1 that fairies attended at his nativity.
ii. which seem to be regarded as having suggested the Gopf revels of Krishna. said Five hundred years hence. 9).
Miiller. vol." is in the Greek (Ki'pos) and the Persian (Cosroe or Koresh. which is given by Hsu She." Yet further. Mythology of the Aryan Nations.
. so is Astyages only a Graecised form of Ashadag. descended unto the open court. It may be worth noting that whereas Krishna is a serpentslayer..
'
:
'
:
Id. 1893. are similarly indicated in 4 Herodotus the killing of boys by Jesus being mildly paralleled in the chastising of a boy by Cyrus. on coming to the place where Confucius was to be born. 1880. Dasyu. 46.
7 "As Laios [father of CEdipus] in the Theban myth is the enemy. on this sacred spot. swaddled and cradled.
. hence the sound of melodious music descends that a unicorn threw out of its mouth a book of jade. which appears to have been first advanced by Lenormant.' It is also said that the Duke of Chan. cc. or biting snake of Hindu legend and the Zohak of the epic of Firdusi." See Report. 1. ed. in a paper written for the "Parliament of Religions. There is an ancient saying that remarkable men have remarkable circumstances attending their births. It should be noted that the "two dragons" occur also in the myths of Ion and Iamos. in the Persian system the serpent is to be killed " at the end of days " by Keresaspa. This name. during his lifetime. 3. who lived five hundred years before Confucius. " to the same cave where she had been 2 united to the God.
:
'
. In the historical sketches of ancient times are recorded many instances of wonderful birth. 426. cp. ii. What is the precise historic 6 relation between the Krishna and the Cyrus legends is still uncertain. so much altered by our pronouncing the "C" as "S. 4.' He adds that in ancient times the holy mother conceived a child by heaven. Exodus ii. 3 Arabic Gospel of the Infancy. after bearing the child to Apollo. divine child. 179. 25. ed. 42 (xviii. Miiller. 24) Gospel of Thomas (1st Greek form).
172-3.
Chips from a German Workshop. OutWies. p. 2 Euripides. Compare the following native account. 21. that the air was filled with music that a voice came out of the heavens.
'
. 172-4. priestcraft. p. they do not set much value on them.
4
5
6
with Khor. In the Greek myth of Ion. again. Ion.' As Confucius appeared at the time predicted. that the events were heralded by miraculous portents. 16-18." Cox. 47 (xix. is scouted by Tiele. carries him. is clearly based on or akin to the Cyrus legend. Though Confucianists do not reject such stories altogether. i. It was not confined to men of wisdom and virtue.
186
CHEIST AND KRISHNA
whom it is told that
his mother.
that as the name Christ.
' ' ' . p. 41. Later (949) she says she bore him in the cave. PungKwang Yu. the Sun) sufficiently like
"
Krishna " to be at least as capable of connection with
1880. of
to a vision. It is said that two dragons wound their bodies round the house where he was born that five men. p. as again more completely in the 5 killing of an Egyptian by Moses. M. venerable with age. often dreamed of the Duke of Chan is also attributed to this circumstance. 4 (ii. and soothsaying. Tradition has handed down many marvellous circumstances connected with the birth of Confucius. 12. identified or interchanged. 324. The fact that Confucius. the account of Jesus as being 8 chosen king by his playfellows. " Azhi dahaka is a purely Aryan demon. shall a divine character be born. the mother Creusa. upon which was engraved this inscription Son of the essence of water. the Duke of Chan is therefore considered to have had a previous knowledge of the coming of Confucius. though the connection is undoubtedly close 7 but on any view the
. the Azidahaka. and shang (born) the other.
M. who shall succeed to the kingdom of the degenerate house of Chan. and Astyages has nothing to do
.

of Hindostan. 4 and 48. to bear Telephos (the Far Light)
afar for nurture
Evadne by her mother Pitane. the destroyer being the Power of Darkness. too. 34. 369). Maurice. and finally crucified Cyrus. Callimachus.
. See below. 90 (55) Diodorus Siculus. The same idea is turned to very different account in the slaying of Argus by Hermes and yet again in the slaying of Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins. a wandering mother who bears a child to the God.
Christian story of the massacre of the innocents by
The obviously mythical Herod was
1
myth in an Oriental cult or a blending the legend 2 massacre by Pharaoh with the legend of the quasiMessianic. 1). which the myth is framed to explain. 124. Frazer..i. T. It may be interesting to note the probable mythological explanation of this story in all its forms. 1 Daniel vi. Origin of the Aryans. that the massacred innocents are the stars which disappear as the sun is about to enter. i.
THE SOLAR-CHILD MYTH
Christian claim
either a standing
of the child
is
187
out of the question. Erdnische Alterthumskitnde.
. means just the founding of a colony under the God s auspices. But only an astronomic idea can well explain the idea in the case of indisputable Sun-Gods.
9
(herself sent
to Poseidon)
goes
away
secretly to bring forth under dark bushes the inspired
with him. 6 Erman. however.
Aryan derivation
.
athwart the sea.
. Origen explicitly says (i. to Libya."
This view. and Spiegel. Mandane comes from Persia Isis flies to the swamps of the Delta to to be delivered in Media 6 bear Horos. "no one knew where " Rhea goes to bear Zeus in Crete Latona wanders far to bear 7 Cyrene is carried by Apollo nurses him Apollo.
. 242. 13 4 Arab. s Pindar. in his careful and ingenious analysis of the myths of Vegetation Gods. Pythia. who bore her
. that the argument of Origen with Celsus shows that the Jews of that day did not dispute the story of the massacre. c. and suckles the child in solitude. and Themis
to
.
. is plainly a phase of the universal and presumably 5 astronomic myth and though the myth-necessity of taking Jesus
. 15-22. to bear to him the 8 Auge (the Shining) in one version flies. . 531.
Bethlehem might account for that detail. Dionysos. iii. had paid more heed to the differentiating clue of the manner of birth of the different species of deity. p. doom -escaping. immortal child Aristseus in others is sent from her father's land. garden of Jove. p. for instance. according to the solar school.
. On the other hand.
:
. after her amour with
. Eng.
. 1 It is erroneously stated by the Rev. who stood high in Jewish esteem as a liberator of the captive race and a believer 4 3 in their God with the addition of the prophecy of Zoroaster. 3 vi. 319-321 Sayce. as to the killing of the six children before the 2 Exod. 5 It could be wished that Dr. when Krishna steals the milk of the cow-maids. which is.
. 9 Pausamas. 190. it may be the sun who takes away the light of the stars (Cox. Divine One. or the -sinking night-sun who takes with him the light of the sky. 81. is born under difficulties equally with the more strictly solar Apollo and Herakles. 61) that " the Jew of Celsus " denies the story. Taylor. iv. vm. 3 v. ii. ix. The journey is really made because of invariable mythic precedent.
Herakles. Handbk. 28 etc. of Eg. 7 iv. section 2. In the old stories. Ancient Empires of the East. In some cases. the flight into Egypt is mythically gratuitous from the purely Messianic point of view the motive "out of Egypt have I called my son" being plainly an after-thought. pp.
. Bel. again. .
. 298-9. as cited. The item of the God being hastily transported or born on a journey. Hymn to Apollo. It is conceivable that such stories may at times have been understood of the sprouting of a seed in despite of the enmities of cold and of animals. 3 Ezra i Isaiah xliv.
. § 15. 7 (iii. tr." Cp. and in nearly all cases we are led to surmise a customary childcarrying rite. will have to be tested by the reconstructed theory of and in any case it is not clear why Astyages should not rank as " purely Aryan. or is taken by the God over seas. 28 xlv. Hist. Gospel.
. 7 Homerid. p.

5 Under all disguises it seems to be the Sun-Child. whose women till the time of Antonine must be delivered in the open air (Pausanias.
. bears her holy child under a palm-tree (as Latona bears 8 9 Apollo. 62. i. iii. 01.
Apollo.— " Mary. Hymn to Apollo.. can be born Khoeo. vi. 27) may be due to the mythopoeic tendency. as Yasoda bears a child simultaneously with Devaki. ii. 26. v. 1861. 117 Theognis.
.
far
CHKIST AND KEISHNA
whom
she bears to Apollo
. the Jumna) has long had the poetic name of Kuli)idi=" daughter of Kalinda. as and Buddha is suckled by her sister. Pausanias. 10 Professor Rhys Davids seems disposed to treat this episode as historic (Buddhism.
. 90). he not only overlooks the mythological significance of the river. 4 Diodorus Siculus.
1
3
5 6
. 8 Horn.
." which last is a name of the sun (Wilson. 49. p. or Day-God. 11 Ueber die Krishna janmdshtami.
. And. Hymn to Apollo.
.
the daughter of Phlegyas follows
. Myrrha has to fly far and be transformed into the myrrh-tree before 8 her child Adonis. 129. Iamos.. 1. Maya dies.
. 1835.
10
Semele
dies. are as significant as the violet colour of her babe. 208 Pliny. Theatre of the Hindus.
is
sent
2
by her father
after bearing Perseus.
like
Auge. 5. who is so born and the purple zone and violet hair of Evadne. as we have seen so many of the Greek Gods were suckled by nurses whereas Mary lives and keeps her child but when Weber assumes that the carrying of Krishna across the river is borrowed from the " Christophoros " legend. 66.
(
. 7 Philostratus' Life of Apollonius. 27). Hist Nat.
hidden by his father. 249.
Sura xix. however. xiv. where she bears the child Anios.
188
son. with child by
. elsewhere mentioned by himself. ix.*
Danae.
house. Horn.
9
.
2 Id. 302 ii. Hagar goes twice into
the wilderness (a distorted myth)
.e. ff. i. But the motive does duty for all manner of cases. Metam. 84. 326-331 Ovid. begotten of
Zeus
and Zeus
conveys the daughter of Opus to Locrus. the Lord. 280. there to bear Iapetos. pp. 5 Callimachus. ff Pindar. xi. 231-258 Diodorus Siculus. 44. as he himself points out twice in his treatise.
her roving father far to bear iEsculapius
Apollonius of
there she
is
Tyana
is
told in a
delivered of
6 the mother of the deified dream to go into a meadow. a period about as late for India as that of the pregnancy of Sarah would be for Westerns).
is
locked
in a chest. Ovid. and 7 her child and in the Buddha legend. which presents the close parallel of the herdsman's wife being delivered at the same time as Mandane. but the whole legend of Cyrus. It is further noteworthy that the Yamuna (i.
." Ilodwell's trans. and Here goes men to conceive and bear Typhon or Mars or Dionysos.
4
thrown into the
sea. v. Fasti. 26) and writes that it was " in accordance with custom " that Maya went to be delivered in her father's house. It is evident.
pregnant at the age of forty-five. p. Olymp. Compare the odd legend of the Epidaurians near the temple of iEsculapius. that the journey is one of the "details" which he admits (p.
and cast on
Delos. Hymn to Delos. and Elizabeth simultaneously 11 with Mary.
. and as Mary does Jesus in the Koran) on her way to her
father's
Maya (who becomes
Of course there are variations. ii.
. the Dawn or
—
who is then taken and "far away" from Zeus and
—
.
Sunset Goddess.

the serpent-worshippers viewed the serpent as "a moist substance ". 4 Vishnu Purana. Mary brings forth Jesus "in Bethlehem. 17) being taken from the cave that he is laid by his mother at after 3 Now. why should we here suppose that its taxing. who 4 The Bhagavat had come hither to bring tribute due to Kansa.
. crossing the reasonable hypothesis. who has come to that city to pay his taxes. however. which follows Luke for the enrolment story. with the babe Krishna in his arms.
2
derive from the third journey to Mathura to pay his taxes. if the Krishna legend is clearly Bethlehem "in an ox-stall." 6 Purana. bk. Note by Wilson.
Ch.
The only canonical Gospel. however. which obviously began at what is now the third chapter. whose waters are stilled and lowered. in Matthew. " does not quit Mathura. has no hint of the the taxing. added late as it was to the original composition." On the exhortation of Vasudeva to go.
hand. Jesus is born on the in Bethlehem of Judea. v. Wilson's trans. " Nanda and the
to
is
Hindu drama or from a common source. in the Vishnu bringing tribute or tax (Kara) to Kansa. the liberated Vasudeva goes "to the waggon of Nanda". The gospel story of Mary and Joseph going
. 503.
2
4).
birth to
3
In the History of Joseph the Carpenter. 506. be it observed.
. p. instead of vice versa ? In the Purana story." Purana version " more consistently makes Vasudeva find Nanda and the rest fast asleep in their houses and subsequently describes their 5 Again.journey motive is borrowed from The latter is plainly the more Christianity." bound up with the long pre-Christian legend of Cyrus. river Yamuna. a motive not found in the gospels. in the cave.THE SOLAR-CHILD MYTH
189
the river figures in the Krishnaite ritual as the serpent or " serpent1 On the other prince.
story of Elizabeth giving
. in a cave near the tomb of Rachel " (ch.
22. 5 Id." Kaliya. Refuta-
tion of all Heresies. 17) the statement is that it was decreed " that all should be enrolled.
obviously
myth
:
:
. 7). p. Vasudeva. which has the John when Mary bears Jesus.
1 Among the Gnostics. and the symbolism of serpent and river is obvious (Hippolytus. c. 6 Id." and it is journey. Gospel the item of Nanda's we are entitled to meet him with the converse proposition. that here at least it is the Christian Gospel that borrows either from the
when the Professor would
taxed under the edict of Augustus
Bethlehem to be there was no such practice in the Roman world and in any case Galilee was still independently governed by Herod-Antipas when Quirinius went to Only the late third Gospel tells the story the narrative tax Judea. but implies that Joseph and Mary lived at Bethlehem Gospel of Mary gives the visit without the taxing and so loosely was the myth credited that in the Protevangelion (c. three miles from Bethlehem (c. sees on the bank " Nanda and the rest. who were In that story. but goes to the and in the Bhagavat he halting ground of Nanda.
.

which. which the second gospel.
:
fall back save that the knowledge of the Indian religious drama. though of course grounded on a myth -motive the Christian story. returned to their village.
we may with
established. iii (ed. 5
of
guard. from the Christian legend. 3 without any thought of Maurice's contention. just as
myth
in which Astyages puts his daughter under a Kansa does his sister Devaki and to the familiar the imprisonment of Danae in the brazen tower which in
. note on chap. 314. Herodotus. M. and their taxes having been paid to the king. I saw the birth of all the devas a hundred fortresses of brass enveloped me I escaped with violence in the form of a falcon.
23. preserved by the Mohammedans. had been conveyed to Egypt or Syria. 314. either by
what explanation can we
travelling
Hindus or by Westerns who visited Asia and that the compilers of the third gospel got it in that way ? How should such a hopeless story have been invented for such a purpose if the hint
. On
flourished before our era. or of some Asian tale of the same mythological origin. 1. p. with
its
variations.
considerable confidence assume to have formed part of
those dramatic representations of the birth of Krishna that are on the evidence of Patanjali's Commentary. 1734.
were not already in circulation ? And the answer is still more easy in the case of the old attempt of the self-frustrative Maurice to derive the item of Devaki's imprisonment by Kansa within seven gates. ii. p. their goods being placed in their waggons.190
CHEIST AND KRISHNA
other cowherds. and the first as it originally stood. and that the latest. as having
The Hindu story is detailed and dramatic. 6 Is it likely that the Hindu imagination would need to come to Christianity for the detail
of the seven gates ?
Mohammedan
forms
of
much more likely that the ChristianHindu drama alike were derived from the ancient myth which makes the Goddess Ishtar pass
Is
it
not
legend and the
1
2
3
4
6
History of Hin&ostan. 6 Pausanias. Essai sur la Ligende du Buddha. 39 b). the fourth. is either a mere myth-echo or is introduced in order to give a basis for the mythical birth of Jesus at Bethlehem. do not assert at all. Senart. Big Veda.
in the
Cyrus legend." Here
is
a detailed and circumstantial narrative. given in one only." 4 And we may further point to the close parallel
1
: :
. Sale's Koran. 27.
ii. i. 2 that Mary during her maidenhood was guarded by Zacharias in the sanctuary within seven doors.
—
one version becomes an underground chamber.
. iv. of which probably he never heard. 108. of the synoptics. gives a Hindu antecedent " Being still in for the story in an utterance of Indra in the Vedas the breast of my mother.

Treatise cited. On this head a sufficient answer is given out of hand by M.
1
. without reckoning the representations of all the exploits attributed to the child Krishna [Weber. But it must be remembered that the stitika-griha must. which
on the mythical character
is
of the birth in
thought by Christians to have suggested. and even. in certain sources. 280. illogical if it be. Of myth there is no " original. may
and it may point mythically either to the notion of the " seven zones. Senart
:
" The confusion. i. of the arrangement ? The idea of representing the young God at the
. bears Herakles to Zeus and the twin Iphiclus to 4 Amphitryon in seven-gated Thebes.
4
Id. but also. 268. Thy sources are seven " (Colebrooke in Asiatic Researches. a stable. of the Apsaras and the armed Danavas. In modern Brahmanic ritual occurs the formula :— " Fire seven are thy fuels seven thy tongues seven thy holy sages seven thy beloved abodes seven ways do seven sacrificers worship thee. the Mithraic. who with her husband
well have been pre-Aryan
. contrary to the strict details of the recital.
1-2. p.
.] the facts reported in the legend. and
and Weber lays stress 5 on the representation of the birth of Krishna in a cow-shed in the elaborate and dramatic ritual service of the Krishna Birth-Festival. 3 like so many other mothers of Gods. or any other mysteries. 273). which here departs from the Puranic legend." save mankind's immemorial dream. on that footing. ff .
far seen of the correspondences
it is
After
what has been thus
the Christian legends and prior myths. 269. apparently. could separation be made of the new-born and the mother. seems to him [Weber] one more sign of Christian imitation. The intention then was not to give a faithful picture of pp. Shield of Hercules. 221-227." or climates.
. pp. of Yasoda and Rohini. in the terms of the ritual.
3 5
Hesiod.
Amphitryon had come away from her own home.
Becords of the Past.
. of the siltikd-griha (lying-in room) with a gokula. like so many other details of the myth. his upbringing among the Gopis. and a similar myth may have been taught in the Dionysiak.
191
through the seven gates of Hades. Hibbert Lectures. 49.
2
1
. contain not only Devakl with her son and Vasudeva. The number had early become a fixed idea. to reach and bring back her lover? This.
stress
between unnecessary to lay much
a stable. vii.—
THE STABLE AND MANGER
1
.
.
The Stable and Manger. to and fro. the guards of Devaki. the images of the shepherds. Alcmene. the Osirian. the legend of the placing of Krishna in a basket. that making the birth take place in Kansa's fortress. or seasons. How. 141 Sayce. We have seen that an orthodox English Sanskritist identifies the basket with the Gospel manger
corresponds with.
§
12. or to the seven 2 planets of ancient astronomy. and all together. or distinction between the prison and the dwelling of the shepherd ? And of what weight is the novelty. of the servants of Kansa. but -to group in a single frame all the personages included in it.

with the oxen standing around and one
of
them
snuffing at the cradle. ed. Antiq.
ii. with an ox and an ass looking on at his feet. i. 723. used to this day
for corn
for cradling children.
.
3
cradle of
Hermes
2
In the ancient Greek lexicon
of
at this point the Christians certainly did nob interpolate. on an ancient red-figured vase. Carus in The Open Court. Miss Harrison. p. 127 and Apuleius. This bas-relief. p. . Metamorphoses. throughout France 7 and Italy."
But not only
Christian
so. following Boeckh). which includes the father and the
argues. Lit of Ancient Greece. 1879. " an
epithet
of
4
Dionysos. began their year at the winter solstice and in Bithynia the month beginning on December 24th was known as Dionysos. Hermann. Hymn to Hermes. Dionysos would be carried in the cradle-basket on Christmas day. while in the Roman period the month Posidaon was in some calendars made to begin on December 25th.
Compare ante
pp. which would correspond nearly to our December. 523. 7 See the reproduction in Northcote and Brownlow's Roma Sotteranea. 507 sq. pt."in a golden basket.
as our Christian apologist
and as it is in the well-known picture of the Nativity by Botticelli). In actual fact we find the God-Child represented. vii.
pp. Again. Xikvltvs. in the fashion in which he is to this day represented at Christmas-time. 1876.
2
tr.. as copied from Nork's reproduction (in Scheible's Kloster.
is
5
Now
it is
if. bk. 401
5 6
sq. "in the sacred basket. pre-
the items of the basket-manger and the stable are equally
is
Not only
and
the Greek liknon. Hymn to Zeus. \Lkvov. the Trieterika. p. took place in the Attic month of Posidaon. Cp. p.
192
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
breast of his mother wanting examples of
is
it
really too simple to prove
anything
:
there are not
1
in the religious representations of the Greeks. in the processions of his
carried in such a
was represented among the Greeks as being basket. Eng. from
the
lihnons
in
which
children
are
cradled. as in the old Christian pictures. 4 See Liddell and Scott. 48. 7rcu6Ya Kot/xcovrat.
the
child
Hermes
is
represented cradled in a liknon.
Hesychius (which though
as
eiridcrov
they did so at others) the word Aikvitijs
Aiovucrov
a7ra)
t(dv Xlkv(mv.
congestam ramulis. See also p." Callimachus. Cp. on a sarcophagus in the Catacombs. 158. and Bergk. the month began then in the Cretan calendar."
Further. 1899. Muller's Ancient Art and
its
Remains.
. standing under a shed. as
we
previously saw. of Gr.
and K. a basket
a
manger
(as
in the East.
235.
iepQ ivi XiKvy. 712 for a copy of a less elaborate design on a sarcophagus of the year 343. apparently in illustration of the
story of his cattle-stealing. as cradled in a basket. s. p. following Clinton. Eng. O. 166-70. 2nd ed. the oldest of all. Fig. further. December. and Bom. tr. and \iKvo<p6pos and Servius on Virgil.
is
the suckling motive. Schmitz in Smith's Diet. The Boeotians. after Kraus—that given in Roma Sotteranea. p. 11. i. which was "the same as that used by most inhabitants of Asia Minor". Hymn to Demeter." Homerid. Chicago. The rural or lesser Dionysia. vol.. 288. 335. Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Beligion.
Miss Harrison. 258 also in Lundy's Monumental Christianity. which again is represented as being the
and
of Jupiter.
.
but
cult. it clearly follows on his own reasoning that the Christian story is derived from the 6 previous Dionysiak or Hermetic cultus. 30) and in an article by Dr. concerning the auream vannum
. Under different names.
.
1
Essai.
is defined ev oTs To. 3 \lKV(p ivl xpv<T^u}. xi. was celebrated on Parnassus at the time of the shortest day (Muller. 493. Prolegomena. 166. ii. Georg. v.
we know
that the infant Dionysos.
. as in Botticelli's picture. the great biennial festival. 85. or twig basket.

" and as " cattle-stealer in the cradle. in Cererem Callimachi. 1823. ii. cited by Von Bohlen. pp. swaddle-clothes. and is asserted by Miiller (Ancient Art. is always used in the rites of Cal. The cradle of Dionysos is a " long basket description of that in the scene in the Catacomb sculpture and the Botticelli picture as it is of the " basket of bulrushes " in which A " woven the sacred child Moses is sent floating on the Nile. on which they place before the image of the Deity the articles used in the ceremony On all solemnities the rituals prescribe exclusively the use of this fan. is
it
193
claimed as primarily
the adoration of the
1
who
see in
has been argued.THE STABLE AND MANGEE
mother. In Hindu ritual the winnowing fan. 436. and all. with an ox and an ass looking on.
Pelasgic ritual of
which the story of
cattle-stealing in the
Homeridian
hymn
But
is
the customary would-be explanation by late observers. apparently. whose mother takes him in it to the rock-cave.
. basket-cradle" again figures in the myth of the birth of Ion. and Miss Harrison. 157. and Bom. p. Christian or Hermetic or Mithraic. this bas-relief. Ramage. and may be based on just such a picture. in Jovem. p. 1. The frequency with which Greek and Indian deities are associated
. and the illustrations on pp.
—
. 494).
. 258. But the point is put in Nork's Die Weihnachts und Osterfeier erklctrt aus dem Sonnencultus der Orientalen. 43-4. 1849. 52. " cradle." The thesis is urged later by a Dutch rationalist.— Art. and three figures coming with
Christian by Christian scholars. H. Ant. 3 Smith's Diet. Dio7iysia. 1596. on the other hand. That this is the mystica vannus Iacchi would seem to be implied by Liddell and Scott. The " mystic winnowing fan " was indeed a basket. proves that a God-Child was early represented as lying swaddled in a basket. 56. as cited. that the sculpture a view which has much probability. Nooks and Byways of Italy. in his Over den Oorsprong der Godsdienstige Denkbeelden. i. the mystica vannus Iacchi. as cited. though the vase-painting of the babe Hermes and the snuffing ox points to a connecting element in
Magi. in Hymn. Dr. 475). 523. and surrounded by the sacred animals of Ormuzd. 1838. They use it as a tray.
"
. ed. Cp.
1 First. of Gr. Obs.
O
. citing Nork's MytJien der alten Persen. which they call Surp.
4
Euripides. defending himself from the charge of cattle-stealing. viii. whence he is carried by Hermes. p. whose typical animals are the bull "3 exactly the and ass.
gifts. 30. by Seel (Die Mithrageheimnisse. 487) describes Hermes in this or a similar scene as " lying in swaddling clothes. 518.
. or else lying on his mother's knee while the ox and ass seem to eat out of the basket. but was it not also the Kaneon of the Canephorse? Cp. 1. p. Von Boblen lays it down that Mithra's birth was dramatically represented at the winter solstice the Sun-Child rests with a nimbus. the Greek usage of carrying in a basket the infant Dionysos. which probably belongs to the fourth century. 127 and in Hymn. 525. 48 (Ernesti's ed. p. p. since is originally Mithraic there is really no other way of explaining the entrance of the Magi into the Christian legend. in Asiatic Besearches." to the temple of his 4 father Apollo. 822-5). 524. Spanheim. 2 Miiller (Anc." The vase-painting may be an illustration of the hymn but the hymn-story is clearly late. 526 sq. and Durga but the Hindus at present affix no other idea of mystery to it than its being an appendage to husbandry. Cali.
in any case. Das alte Indian. Hartogh Heijs van Zouteveen. Art." Patterson.. for one thing.
It
. 411. which I have not been able to see. 31-39. Ion. p. the answer is that it is one of the oldest motives in Aryan mythology. in circumstances which irresistibly suggest the gospel legend of the birth of Jesus and that legend is thus clearly imitative of. And if it be argued that the stable story is something special to Christianity. Prolegomena.

and the cow is to the Hindu to-day as sacred as ever. again. But as we come nearer Christianity the plot thickens.
. playing among the cows with the cow6 herds. In ancient Egypt 3 But the and in Phoenicia it had the same pre-eminent sacredness. Renan. The antagonism between Hermes and Apollo. and herself puts on beautiful garments. and Rydberg. Here the myth is that of the Sun-God meeting the Twilight-Goddess in the sky vacant of clouds. the sacred cow (herself a virgin. or the deities of different races.
22 sq. 9 and cow-headed Isis
logy. who on the evening of the day of his birth steals the cows of the 4 Day-God Apollo (who himself was a cowherd 6 ). So have we seen the solar Cyrus playing among the ox-stalls of his foster-father's home the sun-child disporting himself in the stable of the sky.
:
. 665. In the worship of Isis. p.
6
. cited above. xxi. c. was just such a figure as the black Krishna. Isis and Osiris." while the shepherds and the cows and sheep are absent and he disrobes her but when these return she breathes sleep into her lover. iii. and preserves its cultus. 28. 41
4
1 In Norse cosmogony a cow plays an important part in the creation of man (Grimm's Teutonic Mythology Stallybrass' trans.
. untrammelled by commonplace moral principles. 3 Herodotus. the " cattle idea holds its ground. 52. PP.194
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
is sufficient
religion that a
to indicate to any student unmesmerized by 1 nature-myth or ritual underlies every case. coloured by the sun as he sinks to rest a grace of poetry which tells of a literary civilization that only slightly retains the primitive fancy of cloud-cows and sky-stable. Handbook. 7 Herodotus.
. c.
. the love-sick Goddess comes to Anchises " in the stalls. as cited. 9 Id. " deluge the earth with milk". as above noted. as Roscher argues.
." 2 bellow as loud as roaring clouds ". 11. so that we find the solar Herakles and Hermes fabled as living with shepherds or dealing with cows and the thievish "night-awaiting" Hermes. myth of cow and stable spread world-wide with the race. But the " Night-Sun " concept is a point of fusion between solar and lunar deities. p. Teutonic Mytho2 Wilson's trans. ii. 559. ii. pp. 8 Plutarch. 46. 42. 497). Cp. just a solar deity of the native races they conquered as on the other hand Krishna's superseding of Indra has been above conceived as the final triumph of an aboriginal cult over a Brahmanic. 9. 43. all have that aspect in turn and to the last the In the Vishnu Purana the clouds. Cp. 148. may be plausibly explained as occurring between a new and an old deity.
parallelism between Hermes and Krishna goes to support the view of Ernst Siecke (Hermes der Mondgott. pp. 525. ii. The cow is the foremost myth-animal in the Vedas the clouds. the firmament.
5
Iliad. 11 Erman. Her garments are the returning clouds. 529. Assuming with Miiller that Apollo was the deity of the conquering Dorians.
—
flash
of
lightning
or
by the rays
of
the
moon
7
)
was carried
8
seven times round the temple upon the eve of the winter solstice. p. In the Homeridian Hymn to Aphrodite. 8. "the cows and the bulls of Indra. Pomponius Mela. 1908) that Hermes stands for the moon and not for the wind. c. when the sun-child rose from the lotos. Porphyry. the moon. Hermes may be.
The
.
Hymn to Hermes. Etudes d'Histoire Beligieuse. the earth. 446-8.
. 391.
Homerid. supernaturally impregnated by a
with cows
. Plutarch. i. 263. as cited. as well as that between Indra and Krishna. De Abstinentia.

Miss Harrison. See the
treatise
on Mithraism in Pagan Christ a.
1
as in Indian legend the sun
born of
the cows.
And
still
closer
comes the
parallel. Be Errore.. Isis. 51. pp. and the ritual of the birth of Amunoteph. And to the inquiry of King Ptolemy as to the cause. v. is reduced to the child-status in connection with the cult of 6 Isis and Osiris. Zoological Mythology. 385.
18. seeing that a Christian might though this in the circumstances would be extremely unlikely invent such a story to support his own faith. 340. were already mystically. In the worship 6 of Mithra. xcii. and adore a child in a manger. Migne. and would not by itself suffice to prove the cultus alleged.THE STABLE AND MANGER
bears the
195
is
Sun-God Horos. Prolegomena.God and from Plutarch we know that the infant Horos was figured on the lotos at the time of the winter solstice. Handbook..
6
Firmicus. anciently a SunGod. on the testimony of a Christian writer. 31." The Chronicon Paschale dates from the seventh century. T.
ill. that being evidently the purpose with which the chronicler cites it. And the expression " Child Saviour" clearly points 4 to a child-worshipping ceremonial. But read in connection with Macrobius and Plutarch. whose worship was much older than Jeremiah. p. col.
Pt.
i. and laid in a manger {frxrvrj).
We
know from Macrobius 2
that the Egyptian priests exhibited a babe to the people on a certain
day as being the new-born Sun. they answered that they had received this mystery from a holy prophet who gave it to their 3 fathers.
Erman. seeing that the temples of the sacred bull. Comp. :
—
—
1
3
4 5
2 Saturnalia. That such a worship was primordial in Egypt may be inferred from the fact that Horos.
. evidently that of
. Curs. 560-5. Apis. The proof is furnished by the remarkable record in the Christian Chronicon Paschale (formerly but improperly called Alexandrium) 11 The same Jeremiah gave a sign to the Egyptian priests that their idols would be shaken and overthrown by a child Saviour. and not to the Christian idea of salvation by the crucified adult. But there is documentary evidence that in the Egyptian system a Babe-Saviour was in pre-Christian times worshipped in a manger or crib. stables. As to this cp. But for the ox and stable there is yet another precedent. Patrolog. The Virgin and Child must of course have been Isis and Horos. born of a virgin. It is needless to remark on the possibility that the ox-and-ass myth came from the same quarter. Series Qr. in connection with a virgin mother. i. and in the former case literally. and of the sacred cow. it may be taken as certainly resting on a usage in ancient Egyptian religion. the lowing of the sacred heifers was part of a festival ceremony.
p. Wherefore they still deify a child-carrying virgin.

28.
seem
to
and in the treatise on The Gospel Myths. 21. p. was pre-eminently the God of the winter months. Frazer plausibly argues (1st ed. Inst.
:
of
the
Christian
God-born-in-a-stable. in 8 7 contrast to Apollo. xxiv. constantly associated with Dionysos. again. the
heifer plays
. p. Qriech. and note in Bonn trans. and O.
3
hide his. Preller. ch. evidently had a special significance for the Jews. 11 Plutarch. 31. The legend that the Jews worshipped an ass-headed God doubtless
9
10
. i. La religion des Pre'-israe'lites. 146)."
not only of phallic repute. Gubernatis. xxviii. 11. as well as black (ante. 150. Nikon. 31. c. In the sacred processions of Isis.. as to " the heifer Baal. Dionysos. i.
4
of all the talking beasts
they are from of old symbolic animals.
and they were the two
prophetic reputation. is
is
The
. again. Be Legibus Hebrceorum. iv. again. 5. as myths so often are shall we then suppose that this primitive myth
Christmas eve. and O. 11 one of whose symbolic animals was the ass. who had the widest
bull or ox. 10. The latter animal. where the ass's name. Saturnalia. cc. 41. ed. 13. 398. xxvii.
probably at bottom the night-sun. and also for the Hebrews. I. 52.). c. 3 Calliniachus. i. 1686. 30. p. Myth. xliii. and were meant to promote the ripening of the corn. i. 401-2) that the red-haired victim and the red cow were symbols of the Corn-God. 5 Aristophanes. evidently connects with the similar usage in Egypt. i. 10.
as the
cries of the infant
from hearing them that this is anything but a variation of the myth-motive of pagan antiquity? The mimic presentment of the scene is one of the immemorial features of the Christmas festival in Southern France and Italy who can finally doubt that the usage
:
—
Zeus were covered
in order to prevent
Kronos
was there before the Christian creed ? That the ox and ass in the Mithraic-Christian birth-scene have a mythic or ritual significance is very certain. Cp. and which early
him
as being born between
cow and
2
whose
cries. Div. 361. 6 Gubernatis. 1 Macrobius.
2
4
. Zoological Mythology.
8
Numbers
xix. Zool.
Spencer. it has been shown that in a multitude of points the Christian myths are simply based on previous ritual." Red cattle.
one of the symbol-
animals of the Sun-God
while the ass
is
5 but " carries mysteries. vol. They are not merely
inmates of the " stable
".339). 12 Exodus xxxiv. the day-sun. and O. xxxv.
own
worshippers.
. 11. 160. 392. For the talking horse. For the ass. 1865. were a special sacrifice to Poseidon (Pindar. 3. Dr. as cited.196
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
1 Now. 21 also Plutarch's Life of Antony. which was associated with the solar cult of 10 Typhon. 6 as is Dionysos himself. i. see Grimm. 53-54. Myth. Plutarch. I. ii.
which only
after
a
time
passed current even with his
takes the form of representing
ass. i. Hymn to Zeus. hereinafter. "Victory. For ox and cow. i. In the Jewish ritual the red
and
is
an important part and the rite. since the firstling of the ass was specially redeemable. vol. passim. it will be remembered. 20. 340. Frogs." predicts to Augustus the triumph of Actium and the Hebrew legend of Balaam— all widely circulated stories. iii. 15. I.
in the popular Catholic fable. Plutarch. of which the Rabbins 9 have lost the explanation. Cp. Tobit i. 18. The ass in turn was "red" for the Egyptians (ib. the Night-God or Winter-God and Principle of Darkness. and on that ground 12 bracketed with humanity. 539-541. i. see the legend of Liber in Lactantius.
1
Id. see Livy. Pythia. 1. 247. Pleyte.

and both very different from the Hebrew text.
that which was said by Isaiah the prophet. 31) was so figured. who is cave-born as the offspring of the Earth-Mother. Sanhedrim. ix." 2 so that we have the Greek version ev jxeo-a) 8vo fdW yv<Dcrdrj(TY). and challenges attention by its peculiarity
. citing the Talmud. but
followed by
lives. 63. saying Between two animals thou art made manifest. and inclines to the former
some [he says] by two animals understand angels and men some the incorporeal powers near the divine Glory. the latter 1 Now. 2 Note in the " Ante-Nicene Library " ed. xi. x. fol. in which.
197
being sometimes adorned with wings. it would be borrowed from the Apocryphal Gospel of Matthew. as above. Then was fulfilled
The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib. having him in their midst incessantly adored him. The reference to Habakkuk
(iii." the text reading "revive") are made to read as " two living creatures. Does the Septuagint
proceed upon an Egyptian or other version of the ox-and-ass
11
make
alive " (the
myth
?
Let us see what the commentators have to say
:
" There is a double reading of these words in the Septuagint version of them. is doubtless in part based on much older originals.
not the only animals. of the Apocryphal Gospels. 186. Then was fulfilled that which was said by Abakuk the prophet. 14). by a change of the midst of two lives thou shalt be known accent. 23. the cherubim and seraphim others the Jews and Babylonians but to me it seems that the prophet does
1
. . Cp.
:
the Catacombs
and Weber decides that
And on the third day after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ the most blessed Mary went forth out of the cave. the ox and the ass. The very animals therefore. In the same place Joseph remained with Mary three days" (c.
not say animals. so the Arabic version." Here then rises the interesting question. in the midst of two animals thou shalt be known. p. the words " years " and
marginal reading in the Authorized Version is "preserved alive. and PI. is.
the present and future
'
The
latter reading is
many
of the ancients. and stable-born for the reasons we are now considering. B. p. Metamorphoses. entering a stable. late in its present form. in the Krishna ritual
as they do in the birth scene of
much
this is one of the details borrowed from Christianity. both bound up with the worship of the Sun-God.
*
. but to the
Septuagint. in the The other. and. by a slight variation in the vocalisation of one Hebrew word and the spelling of another. The narrative of that document. 1 Apuleius. Pleyte.
2)
is
not to the
Hebrew
as
commonly
rendered. Pleyte. placed the child in the stall. " between two living creatures thou shalt be known.
.—
THE STABLE AND MANGER
ox and the ass were the principal
the ox and the ass figure very
if
—
. The one is.
whose
different senses are given
by Jerome
derives from the fact that the Samaritan God Tartak (2 Kings xvii. On that view. saying
:
:
"
Here we have a forced combination of the two myth-motives of cave and stable. and the ox and the ass adored him. Theodoret makes mention of both.

the ox and the ass.
." The reference is to the corrupt passage Ps.
Justin Martyr.
on the other hand.
we
are left to
what we otherwise know
of the
mythological standing of the animals in question." was well fitted to serve as a Messianic prophecy for the Hellenic Jews. 777.
'
'
:
'
Nativity. the "two animals" was a quite
fortuitous reading.198
. and of the two seraphim in Isaiah and there were some who understood them of the two Testaments.' Maranus says David did predict. then we trace to preChristian times the entrance of the ox-and-ass
myth
into Judaic
channels.
ancient "demoniacal Nothing is to be gathered save that the Septuagint somehow adopted the reading of " two creatures. DioAooue v.
. c." Whatever "David" said.
if. But that a merely accidental reading or
rest
is
The
modern
Talmudism
—the
possession " of verbalism over again. but that it would happen before sun and moon that He would be born of a Virgin.
. " thou shalt be acknowledged when the years draw nigh thou shalt be manifested when the time is come. not that Christ would be born of Mary before sun and moon.
misreading of the
the stable
Hebrew
text could be the origin of the
myth
of
and the adoring ox and ass.
. The stable. but explicable in all likelihood by the ancient ritual-usage under notice. ex. If the translator of Habakkuk in the Septuagint was influenced by an Egyptian or Oriental mystery-doctrine. 76. Doudney's ed. by whom the Father is made known others of the two cherubim in Exodus.
. Here. has a statement that
David predicted that he [Christ] would be born from the womb 2 before sun and moon. as later found in the apocryphal Gospel. the context in the Septuagint. we have here the glyph of the symbolic ox and ass at the
.
iv. and to which they refer in their ancient hymns. as we have seen. and is therefore
from old
1
Gill's
2
Exposition of the Old Testament.
who was
"
pretty close to the myth-sources.
And
the passage in Pseudo-Matthew
is
singularly suggestive of
just such a process of legend-making
ritual as has been above contended for. is incredible. For the rest.ith Trypho." a formula unintelligible on Biblical grounds. the Old and New and others of Christ's being crucified but besides these different sentiments many of the between two thieves ancients concluded from hence that Christ lay in the manger between two animals.
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
on the place some interpreting them of the Son and Spirit. Ml [Cognovit bos et asinus Quod puer erat Dominus]
. was an established myth. the laying-inthe-manger is entirely dissociated from the birth. as in the Protevangelion. 3 and the translators of the Ante-Nicene Library version have this note "Justin puts sun and moon instead of Lucifer. and the ox and ass were at home in the stable.

—
THE STABLE AND MANGER
the

199

more confidently

to

framed to meet a purpose

be looked upon as a piece of narrative just as the pragmatic account of the
;

have a doctrinal significance. such a doctrine lay in the pre-existence of cave-worship, especially in Mithraism, from which Christianity so largely borrowed
lightless cave is evidently intended to

The need

for

Pagan ritual in which was exhibited as born in a cave and the need for the laying in a manger in presence of ox and ass can be explained only in a similar way. Thus established, the myth would easily reappear in the form of the animation by the child Jesus of figures of oxen and asses, and in the appearance of oxen and asses in the
in other regards,

and

in the actual practice of a

a Child-God (as Ion)

;

1

fabulous cortege of the family in Egypt.
Is
it

2

then reasonable,

is it

plausible, to

assume that
form
?

this certainly

derivative legend, never accepted as canonical, suddenly captured the

Hindus

late in our era in its Christianized

Are we not, on
?

the contrary, driven irresistibly to infer that the Christian ox-andass legend derives from a ritual of

are rubbed together, a process conserved for religious purposes (as
fire was rekindled in Mexico and elsewhere) for ages after had become unnecessary. Thus, for one thing, the ever new-born Agni of the Veda is associated with the crossed sticks, which on one theory are the origin of the cross symbol. But not only is Agni repeatedly adored as the new-born by his worshippers, he is held to be similarly adored by the forces of Nature, and by the Devas or

the sacred

it

divinities in general, as is the luminous Christ-child in the Prote3 vangelion, and the " beautiful beloved child " the Sun-God in the

ancient ritual of Egypt

4
:

fills all dwellings with shining Agni, art the embryo of heaven and earth variegated, infantine, thou dispersest the nocturnal glooms Therefore the genetrices (of all things, the herbs) the cherishers (of all) with food, wait on

"Agni, the bright-bodied, as soon as born,

light.

When

born, thou,

O

thee

who art the augmenter of food, with the sacrificial viands." 5 "The Vedic Gods render homage to Agni when he is born, and when he

passes resplendent from his parents the aranis." G " He [Agni] diffuses happiness in a dwelling like a son newly born." 7
1

So in the later western world is Dionysos hailed ignigenam, satumque iterum, solumque bimatrem, "fire-born, twice-born, the only one with 4 two mothers." And this transparent infant-myth is curiously interwoven in the Veda with the other primeval myths of cow and cave.
"Agni, as soon as born, blazes brightly, destroying the Dasyus" [demons] " and (dispersing) the darkness by his lustre he has discovered the cows, the waters, the sun." 5
;

rite,

"In this world our mortal forefathers departed after instituting the sacred when, calling upon the dawn, they extricated the milk-yielding kine,

concealed among the rocks in the darkness (of the cave) " Rending the rocks they worshipped (Agni) and other (sages) taught everywhere their (acts) unprovided with the means of extricating the cattle, they
:

author of success, whence they found the light, and were thus enabled (to worship him) with holy ceremonies. " Devoted (to Agni) those leaders (of sacred rites) with minds intent upon (recovering) the cattle, forced open, by (the power) of divine prayer, the obstructing compact solid mountain, confining the cows, a cow-pen full
glorified the

of kine

"

The scattered darkness was destroyed
:

radiance
all

the firmament glowed with then the sun stood above the undecaying mountains, beholding
:

that was right or wrong

among mankind." 6

This last extra-obscure passage well exemplifies the frequent difficulty, avowed by the best scholars, 7 of making out what the Vedas mean
a difficulty further deducible from a comparison of the renderings of Wilson and Langlois with those of later German translators, and of these last with each other. But the association of Agni with cattle and cave seems certain from that and the previous extract, and there is no great obscurity in these further passages " Both the auspicious ones (day and night) wait upon him [Agni] like two
:

last, doubtless, being on account of the 21, 34 ; vi, 119; and Grassniann's, pp. 45, 73.
is

—the

air, in the earth, and in the water sun's reflection there. Cp. Wilson's tr. iii,

3 That Dionysos is primarily a Thrakian Beer-God, as such born of the Earth Mother, convincingly proved by Miss Harrison, Prolegomena, ch.viii but in his later Wine-God stage he seems to have acquired some Asiatic characteristics. 4 Ovid, Metam. iv, 11; Diodorus Siculus, iii, 61 iv, 4, 5; Orphica 1. i. G Id. iii, 115-6. 5 Wilson's trans, iii, 261. 7 See Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, ii, 214. It should be noted that Wilson's translation, which is here primarily used, follows the commentary of Sayana, as to the merits of which see Max Muller, pref to 1st ed. of trans, of Vedic Hymns, 8. B. E. On comparing the passages here cited with the later renderings of Oldenberg, I find no vital differences. In any case, we want in this connection to have the text as understood by the later
; ;
.

H.Grassmann: 2 " To thee, Agni, shout joy (jauchzen) Night and the Dawn, as in the stalls cows cry to
metrical version of

Is it going too far to surmise that, seeing Agni himself, Fire-God and Sun-God, was in the Veda said to have been, " in the olden time, the bull and the cow," 3 the symbols of the Night and the Morning, here represented as saluting him, may even then have been the Ox and Ass ?
calves."

When we compare the notion of the instantaneous growth of the new-born Agni (who " as soon as born fills heaven and earth with 4 light," and "fractures, as he advances, the solid cloud"; and who " archer " and the " lord of night " 5 the Vedic address is further the ), to Indra as having " discovered the cows hidden in the cave," 6 and 7 the legend that these cows were stolen by the Asuras when we compare these data with the Greek myth of the night-waiting, cattle-stealing, infant Hermes, it is difficult to doubt that the latter fable derives from the Asiatic original preserved in the Veda. Whether the " two mothers " were suggested by the common myth of the suckling of the child-God by another than she who bore him, or whether the latter notion grew out of the misunderstood symbol of the two fire-sticks, or the mystic doctrine that the Sun-God was 8 born of both Heaven and Earth, we need not attempt to decide.

—

But

a fresh light

myth we get when we connect the Vedic myths of the infant Agni 9 (who, by the way, was specially invoked at the vernal equinox )
as regards the Indian origin of the ox-and-ass

In the Jayanti form of the festival, the erecting of a shed, the watching by it through the night, and the distribution of the images, are important
with the Krishnaite ritual of the Birth Festival.
items.
10

Now,

in the

Catacomb sarcophagus, the basket containing

the child, and the ox and ass, stand under a sloping shed-roof, resting on two posts, while none of the other figures do. Here there is
there is only a scenic shed, exactly answering to the shed of the Krishnaite ritual and to the right of Eemarkably that two palm trees, between which the mother sits.
neither cave nor inn-stable
;
;

enough, one of those trees bends, as do the palms in the Koran legend of Mary, in the Buddhist legend of Maya, and in the account
in

after the birth.

Pseudo-Matthew (c. 20) of the wanderings of Mary and Joseph The trees clearly cannot be reconciled with cave

or stable.

How

then came this shed to appear in early Christian or semi-

Christian sacred art, unauthorized either by the generally received

conclusion
that

cave legend or by the story in the third Gospel ? What possible is open to us save that it represents a usage in the dramatic ritual of some other cultus and that it was this usage
;

view in the peculiar version of the story in the Apocryphal Gospels ? And, apart from the familiar myth of the births of Apollo and Buddha under a palm tree, what ritual usage do we know of that comes so close as that of Krishnaism ? Either
in

was

the scene

If the latter, we have Christian or it is Mithraic. complete identity between the Persian and the Hindu a phase of and in that case Mithraism would cult, which need not surprise us be the channel through which the myth of ox-and-ass, stable-andmanger, came into Christianity. But if we suppose the bas-relief
is
;

to be non-Mithraic, then

it

must be held

a ritual usage previously existing in India
in our

—the usage which survives
mythology as early

to be a close imitation of

own

day.

For the ass appears

in Indian

the Vedas, where already he has two characters, divine and demoniacal, being at one time the symbol of Indra, Krishna's
as

predecessor, and at another his enemy.

As the friend of the black and once demonic Krishna, he corresponds, with reversal of colour, 3 to the ass of Egypt, who was the symbol of the evil Typhon. " childlike." 3 Again, curiously, one of his Vedic epithets is When, therefore, we find in the art of Buddhism, as in the 4 Gandhara sculptures, a representation of a Nativity scene, in which
a woman lays a child in a manger-basket, it is quite out of the In the scene in question to look for the suggestion to the Gospels. question, horses' heads appear in the place of those of the familiar

1

ox and ass

and here we are probably dealing with another solar was in Asia specially associated with the The babe in this case may very well have been Agni, who in sun. the Veda is driver of the white horses of the sun and though, as we shall see, the Buddha myth has borrowed a good deal from that of Krishna, it could also draw directly from the Vedic store.
;

Western borrowing there were on the Hindu side which now be argued it could perfectly well have been preChristian. The ass might be the ass of Typhon, " who was the chief God of the Semites in Egypt," though in ill repute with the Christians and it may have been from Egypt that the Christians
will hardly

—

—

1

;

derived

it.

And when we

are discussing origins,

we should not

Dupuis and Volney, 2 that the birth of the Sun-Child between the ox and the ass is simply a fable based on the fact that in the zodiacal celestial sphere the sun would come, at the winter solstice, between the Bull and the Ursa Major, sometimes represented by the ancients as a Boar, sometimes as the Hippopotamus, sometimes the Ass, of Typhon. In view of the vasepainting of the babe Hermes in his cradle among the kine, we can
forget the suggestion of

accept this suggestion only with the qualification that the astronomithan that of the cow-stealing. But the conception may well be as old as the zodiac the sky-cow is one of the oldest
cal gloss is later
:

may be only less ancient; and the imagination which placed terrestrial creatures in the heavens would house them there terrestrially. The Sun-God is in this
of

myths; that

of the cloud-cows

of the Earth Sky in the stable. 3 Another detail comes in to extend the surmise that the Christian legend borrows from the East. In the Catacomb fresco representing the (supposed) adoration of the Virgin and Child by two Magi, as reproduced in large and in colour in De Rossi's Imagines Selectae Deiparae Virginis* the dish tendered to the babe or mother by the

primary sense born of two mothers, Earth and Sky
in the cave, of the

—

right-hand

man

bears a small
?

human figure.
is

What

is

the Christian

explanation of that
is

What

hypothesis

more

likely

than that this

one of the Krishnaite images, or an imitation of an intermediary
That, of course, remains a hypothesis.
to

Asiatic cult-practice ?

bound

And, indeed, we are keep in view that the manifold Egyptian ritual may have included just such a ceremony as that under notice. In the pro-

cession of Isis, as described by Apuleius, the ass

a feeble old
Gospels.

man

—exactly

is

accompanied by

And we know

the aged Joseph of the Apocryphal that the solarized Amunoteph III, who

here seems to typify customary royal ceremony, figures in Egyptian sculpture as supernaturally announced, conceived, and born, very

Jesus in Christian legend. The messenger-God, Thoth, announces to the maid-mother the coming birth the Spirit-God
;

Kneph miraculously impregnates her

;

and the

priests kneel

and

adore the new-born babe, holding up the cross of life. This must have been a matter of ritual. In the Catacomb bas-relief and frescoes, again, the adorers, the " Magi," both in the picture with two and in that with four, 2 wear the Phrygian or Mithraic cap but,
;

instead of representing the venerable sages of
fancy, they are all

modern Christian

young and beardless.

The

juvenile angel, again,

exactly corresponds to that which figures in the admittedly Mithraic

remains in the Catacombs, as reproduced by Father Garucci and accepted by Canons Northcote and Brownlow. On the other hand, 3 in the fragment of the earliest-dated Catacomb sarcophagus held

ox and ass, the swaddled child, and two adorers, the men are rather of Western figure though at the end behind them a hand appears grasping a palm tree or branch. Thus there is the suggestion of the East as well as of Western assimilation. We cannot yet decide with certainty as to the myth's line of travel we can only decide that all early Christian myth is an adaptation of previous myth. The case, I think, is thus far clear. The Krishna birth myth is and it is highly probable that the Birth-Festival at bottom primeval ritual, which Weber supposes to have been based on Christianity, preserves prehistoric practice. Some rite of the kind there was in the Dionysiak Liknoplwria, in which the devotees by night hailed 4 a cradled Babe-God. At the midnight hour of the Hindu God's 5 birth there is a ceremony of a" pouring out of riches" (ein Guss Reichthums) which it is a wonder the Professor does not hold to
to be Christian, representing the
; ; ;

In all probability it does point myth. The "riches" are symbolic, an offering of melted butter and sugar surely the " nectar and pleasant 6 ambrosia" with which Themis fed the babe Apollo; and with which the Hours feed the deathless child Aristaeus, son of Apollo and Cyrene, and by some called Shepherd, Jove, and chaste Apollo, God of Flocks; 7 the milk and honey on which Dionysos and the 8 child Jupiter were nourished the " butter and honey " that in the
represent the offerings of the Magi.
to the origin of that

are named as the food of the child Immanuel to be born of the " virgin " of that time, and that were used in their

milk for butter) by the early Christians, especially in the till the Council of Trullo (held at Constanti2 nople, in 691) forbad the usage, doubtless because its pagan origin was recognized. And surely the ancient adoration of the ever-newrites (with

"

Mystery

of Infants,"

born Agni was either the origin or the parallel of the offering of Does not the whole mass of data butter to the new-born Krishna. go to suggest that a more or less dramatic ritual has preserved a Babe-Sun-God worship from immemorial antiquity ? In preChristian India it became actual drama, which the Festival ritual, with its multitude of images, appears to preserve as far as may be and there is much reason to suspect that the form of part of the
Protevangelion comes of a semi-dramatic
3

ritual, as

the adoration of

the Magi must have done, and as the legends of the Lord's Supper

Be that how it and the rock-tomb burial almost certainly did. may, the theory that Krishnaism borrowed either its myths or its rites from Christianity is now evidently enough untenable.
§ 13.

4

The Myth of

St.

Christopher.

The study of a few of the minor myths of Christianity in connection with Krishnaism will be found no less instructive than the
comparison of the central myth-motives of the two creeds. Always the lesson is that the mythology of Christianity was derivative and at times, though there can be no certainty, there is some reason We to suspect a direct Christian adoption of Eastern details. have spoken of the item of the visit of the foster-father of Krishna to the holy city to pay his taxes, which in the Krishna myth is as
;

it

were naturally embedded in the narrative, while in the Christ

myth it is grafted on loosely and vicariously. But the same statement may be made even more emphatically in other regards. " 5 Professor Weber has assumed the priority of the " Christophoros
legend, in

which

St.

carries the rejuvenated Christ, the Christ-child,

Christopher under miraculous circumstances on his shoulders

across a river by night.

that the idea of regarding Christ
1

The Professor does not ask how it was still as a child came to persist in
2, §

Isaiah

vii, 14-15.

2
3 5

Bingham's Christian Antiquities, xv,
Chs.
xiii, xiv.

3 (ed. 1855, vol. v, 242-3).

4 See Pagan Christs, Part iii, Mithraism, § 4. Here adopting a thesis of the pre-scientific Giorgi— cited by Von Bohlen, Das Alte Indien, 1830. i, 232. Von Bohlen states that Kleuker held the Christophoros story to be of Indian origin but I cannot find such a remark in the place cited. Kleuker did, however (Abhandlungen, as before cited, ii, 234), argue that it was probably the Christians who borrowed from the Hindus, and that the apocryphal Gospels show distinct traces of
;

Indian influence.

—
206

CHRIST AND KRISHNA

the Church through so

many centuries, and that only gradually did he come to be pictured as a young man, and finally as a man of middle age. We can see what preserves the child image in Krishnaism the ancient usage of dramatic ritual, which is only partially overruled by the literary presentment of the stories of the God's career. Now, by far the most probable hypothesis of the origin of the Christophoros myth is either that it was framed to

—

explain a

Pagan

sculpture, or that, like so

many

others,

it

was

invented late to explain some dramatic or other representation
that there

was a ritual in which the Christ-child, like the infant Dionysos or Hermes in Greece, and the infant Horos in Egypt, was carried on a man's (or God's) shoulder, long before the legend of the
colossal Christ-bearer

was framed.

For

this hypothesis

we have

the most convincing evidence in the

plural term Ghristophoroi, found applied to martyrs in
letter of

an alleged

the third century quoted by Eusebius.

1

This term the

orthodox authorities deduce from the epithet " Theophoros," said to have been applied to Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch and the usual
;

explanation

means " full of Christ," as Theophoros meant 2 "full of God." The Bohn translator, Mr. Cruse, however, insists on the etymological meaning of the word, writing that " the martyrs
is

that

it

by a strong figure, Christophori, because they bore ; and This is called Theophorus for the same reason." probably nearer the truth than Mr. Cruse was aware of. The name Theophoros would not have been attached to Ignatius had it not been in existence before. It literally meant, in classic usage, 3 one "bearing or carrying a God"; and would naturally be applied
were
called,

Ignatius

was

to those

who carried

statues of the

Gods

in ceremonial or procession.

There were a score of such names in connection with the Greek rituals. Not to speak of the soldiers and police officers called after the weapons they carried, as the doryphoroi, aichmophoroi, mastigophoroi, rhabdophoroi, etc., there were the liknophoroi, the women who carried the cradle-basket of Dionysos in his processions the
;

kanephoroi,

women who

bore sacred baskets of another sort

;

the

oschophoroi, noble youths who, in the disguise of

women,

carried
;

deipnophoroi,

branches of vine in the festival from which came the name the women who, as mothers, carried food for the youths the arrephoroi (or ersephoroi), maidens who carried the mystic chest
;

image of Only secondarily and indirectly could the word Theophoros come to have the meaning of "possessed by the God"; and the instance cited by 2 Liddell and Scott, in which the phrase is " pains of inspiration," is clearly in close connection with the primary meaning. In all probability the name Theophoros at times became a family one, 3 just as that of Nikephoros, " Victory-bearer," which continued to
is

ram on his shoulders Good Shepherd )

(the admitted origin of the Christian

Hermes

Kriophoros, the ram-bearer.

subsist long after

Pagan times among

Christians.

On

the other

hand,

we know

that in the Attic theatre one of the seats officially
4

reserved was allotted to the Iacchophoros, the bearer of the statue of

Iacchos in the Eleusinian procession, the designation in this case remaining an official title. Either way, we are dealing with a

common and
solider basis

recognized ritual practice

;

to infer that the generic

name

Christophoroi must have had

and we have every reason some

than an analogy from a metaphor. That the Christian myth of the Christ-birth is a concoction from previous myths, we have already seen and that the borrowing was first made by way of " mystery " or ritual, the Catacomb remains go far to prove. We know too that in the Egyptian system, apart from the practice of carrying the new-born Sun-Child to exhibit him to the people, 5 there was a whole order of Pastophoroi, bearers of the pastos, who according to one theory bore a shawl in the mysteries of Isis and Osiris, but " according to another interpretation " and a much more tenable one " were so denominated from
;

—

—

carrying, not a shawl, but a shrine or small chapel, containing the

image of the God." 6 These Pastophoroi were "a numerous and important body of men," who had allotted to them a part of the Egyptian temples, called the pastophorion a term adopted by the

—

1

See Smith and Cheetham's Diet, under
;

"

Christianity, ch. vii Didron, Christian Iconography, Eng. tr. i, 339, 341, and the figures copied in Dr. Carus's art. in Open Court, December, 1899. This type also appears in Buddhist sculpture. 3 See Athenseus, 2 From iEschylus, Agam. 1150. v, 27. 4 Haigh, The Attic Theatre, 1889, p. 309. 5 Macrobius, Saturnalia, i, 18. It is important to remember that Macrobius says the child is carried ex adyto, out of the innermost sanctuary of the temple. The adytum " was almost certainly in its origin a cave; indeed, in Greece it was often wholly or partially " subterranean, and is called fxtyapov which is the Semitic HI J?0 and means a cave (Smith, Beligion of the Semites, p. 183 cp. Tiele, Egyptian Religion, p. 115). Here once more the Christian myth is led up to. 6 Smith's Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Antiq., art. Pastophorus. Ed. 1849, p. 871. Compare Apuleius {Metamorphoses, bk. 11), who speaks of the Pastophori as carrying "the sacred images " and breathing effigies " (simulacra spirantia). See also last par. of the book.
;
'

Good Shepherd." Cp. Lundy, Monumental

;

;

208

CHRIST AND KRISHNA
1

And they spread Jews in describing the temple of Jerusalem. beyond Egypt, having a " college " or brotherhood at Industria, a 2 city of Liguria. Now, it may be argued that the term Christophoroi might be jocularly applied to Christians by analogy from these and other classes with the same name-suffix but that the Christians should have adopted it without some real reason is
;

hardly supposable.

early Christian ritual,

And when we look into the admitted remains of we see at least hints of what the reason was.

In early frescoes the Christian hierophant bears a pastos, or a kiste, They would hardly analogous to the sacred chest of Dionysos.
carry the serpent, as the kiste did
;

but their shrine or chest carried

something.

might be, then, that this was only the sacred host, which to day is " the good God " in Catholic countries. But whence then came the idea of making the mythic Christophoros, giant as he was, carry the child Christ ? I can see no explanation save one or all of three (1) that the persistent Pagan charge against the early 4 Christians of eating a child in their rites rested on a ritual custom 5 exhibiting or eating the baked image of a child, a rite to which, of 6 7 as being a sacred mystery, the Christians were unwilling to confess
It this
:

of

1 Maccabees, iv, 38. Smith's Diet, as above, citing Maffei, Mus.tyeron. p. 230. Apuleius locates a college at Cenchrese. 3 See Boma Sotteranea, ed. 1879, i, 362. PI. xi. 4 Justin Martyr, Apol. i, 26 ii, 12 Eusebius, Eccles. Hist, v, 1 Athenagoras, Apol. c. 3 Origen, Against Celsus, vi, 27 Min. Felix, cc. 9, 10, 30, 31 Tertullian, Apolog. cc. 7, 8, 9. 5 Note the image on the platter of the Magus," referred to above, § 12. Baked images were known in the sacrifices of the poor in antiquity (Herodotus, ii, 47) and in Mexico dough images of the God were eaten sacramentally. See H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of tlie Pacific States, iii, 297-300, 389; ii, 321. A very extensive list of cases in which either a baked or an unbaked image of a child or adult is ceremonially eaten in ancient and modern times is given by Dr. Frazer, Golden Bough, 1st ed, ii, 68, 79-84, and notes. Macrobius (Saturnalia, i, 7) gives accounts of the substitution of images for human heads as sacrifices to Hades, and again of heads of garlic and poppy for human heads in sacrifice to the Goddess Mania, mother of the Lares. Yet again, Ovid (Fasti, v, 621-31) tells of the substitution of rush or straw images for old men formerly sacrificed in the worship of Vesta. Mommsen, whose chapter (xii) on the religion of Rome is, as we have seen, a mosaic of incoherent generalizations, declares that it is only an unreflecting misconception that can discover in this usage a reminiscence of ancient human sacrifices." He then explains that the Romans acted in the spirit of their merchants, who were legally free to " fulfil their contracts merely in the letter "; that they in all seriousness practised " a pious cunning, which tried to delude and pacify" the deity " by means of a sham satisfaction." Of what then was it a sham ? 6 The existence of secret mysteries among the early Christians after the second century is abundantly shown in Clarkson's Discourse concerning Liturgies (Select Works, Wycliffe Society's ed. 1846, pp. 266-277). And see Dr. Edwin Hatch's posthumous work, The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church, 1890, pp. 292-305, where it is frankly admitted that the Christians imitated Pagan methods. In practising secrecy in particular the Christians only followed the general Pagan usage. Compare Clarkson's citations with Herodotus, passim. 7 See Tertullian, Apology, c. 7, where the denial is anything but straightforward. We may rest content with an orthodox explanation: "The method of celebrating baptism, confirmation, and the eucharist the nature and effect of these ordinances the sublime doctrine of the Trinity and the Creed and Lord's Prayer, were only communicated to converts about the time of their baptism. Christians were absolutely prohibited from revealing this information to catechumens or infidels; and whenever the early Christian writers speak on such topics (except when controversy compels them to a different course) there is usually some reserve in their manner, some reference to the peculiar knowledge This primitive discipline is sufficient to account for the facts that very of the faithful few allusions to the liturgy or eucharistic service are found in the writings of the Fathers 2

1

them

;

;

;

;

;

;

'

;

'

;

;

;

ii. of eating a baked image of a lamb. The just inference is that. Pagan Christs. as to the use of a confectionery image of a lamb. Without suggesting a similar process of substitution. end. 300. of Anc. B. 1887. Palmer. Muller. Eng. Mariner. and contains but a small part of the probable truth.
three theories
and so much implicated one with the other. 4th ed.
taken in connection with the distinct records of pre-Christian
the more clear does
become that the accepted notions
wide
of the facts. . or
Horos was represented
. Light in Africa. Origines Liturgicce. when speaking of the Eucharist. by a Pakeha Maori. 190-1. Amerikanischen Urreligionen. tr. Egyptians. cp. 107. 33). iii. 1827. Bingham. Belig. See also the Rev. 134. p. J. B. i Cp. plain traces of the 4 sacrifice of the first-born child in the Hebrew code are clearer in
it
the light of similar usages
America. Old New Zealand. James.
may have
set illiterate Christians. Trollope's edition of the Greek Liturgy of St. W.
5
P
. which still subsists in Italy. 177 Dimeschqui.
are so probable. as among the Semites. Pausanias. 8. See Pagan Christs. 6 Lafitau. why should the early Fathers have kept up any air of mystery? 1 See Wiedemann. 164. p. 214. A. Rhys. cited by Bastian. p. 14. The. i.
and as a child may have been
the rites of Mithra
or (3) that the
many
or
representations of the
carrying of a Divine Child by
Hermes
by Herakles
in
Greek
1
sculpture or painting. 58. 22. W. Pagan Christs. i. after the fall of
Paganism. i. with an actual killed lamb and Easter eggs. 156. 325. the 7 a child has been commonly regarded as of special efficacy. viii. ch. p.
of the rise
of the cult are hopelessly
First as to the charge of ritual child-eating. xv. enter as little as possible into detail.
CHEISTOPHER
dummy
was
child
209
or (2) that in the Christian celebration a real or
was
in
actually carried in the sacred basket. It is an admitted historic fact that in some of the churches. p. ch. 2 Hatch. Hibbert Lectures on Celtic Heathendom. upon
all
the framing of an explanatory Christian tale. just as Dionysos
as
in his. that we are not free to reject any. or the figure of the
God Bes And
carrying Horos. 9. He comes to the conclusion that no liturgy was published till late in the fourth century. p.. Moeurs des sauvages ameriquains. they are almost entirely silent" (Rev." Mr.—
THE MYTH OF
ST.
The more
it
closely
we
look into Christian
myth
ritual.
On
this obscure
problem
has to be remembered that among primitive peoples the sacrificing of infants has been common. 201-2. Macdonald. The Tshi-speaMng Peoples of the Gold Coast.
6
sacrifice of
among primitives in Africa and North Among primitives. 15: " The Fathers in general. sec. G. As to what may seem to many readers the most unlikely of all the eating of the baked image of a child there is really most evidence. when the Church was no longer in fear of its enemies. 212. by modern Catholics. 1890.
. Tonga Islands. p. pp. 2. when the popularity of the cult made the old secrecy impossible. 144. 144 ff. p. 171. c. Trollope's explanation— that they feared to expose the mysteries to ribaldry— is clearly inadequate. it is clear. 300 ii. pp. 3. its ritual was to a large extent shorn of the grosser usages derived from Paganism. we may reason3 ably surmise that the infans far re contectus of the Pagan charge was really a model of a child in dough. .
5
and that on the more solemn part
of consecration. ? Cp. pp. etc. s Minucius Felix. Antiquities of the Christian Church.
Rev. there arose the practice. Ellis. after the manner of so many pagan
—
cults in all ages. 1848. Der Mensch. after the abandonment of the practice of eating an actual lamb in the eucharist at Easter. If the eucharist ritual all along was just what was set down in the Gospels. Cp. as cited.
in Egypt. 1724. 181 J.

Tertullian. the Christians were accused of killing children in religious rites. the Harranians in the Middle Ages annually sacrificed an infant. which might or might not die. 51 Spencer and Gillen. It should be noted that Dr. Life of Belisarius. " until the
beginning of the present century the custom of offering a first-born
2 Ganges was common. 199. 262.B. Prolegomena. the Greek tradition that at Potniae in Boeotia it was for a time the custom to sacrifice a boy to Dionysos. p. ed. till the God accepted a goat as 11 victim instead. is certain and in view of the myth of the dismemberment and eating of the boy Dionysos by the Titans. 379. As to the sacrificing of boys. v. 1860. pp. " according to Mohammedan accounts. 8 vi.
child to the
They made the charge against the pagans. took a pregnant girl. 493) have resolved the " Titans" into titanoi. 311. 108. 2nd ed. Apologeticus.
. Bastian. ii. and. ix. 1900. That the victim whether bull or goat or lambwas sacrificed and eaten as the God. others than hood of secret ones. 9 Robertson Smith.. xvi. the men covered with white clay or gypsum Uitanos) who figured in the rite. Der Mensch in der Geschichte. and so made an unguent for the soldiers' gauntlets. 41-42. 87) as to the ancient eucharistic practice of making bread with the blood of a child. ix.
1
Pagan Christ s. Cp. Religion and Folklore of Northern India. see the passage in Horace. the story of how the people of Pergamos. Cp. 25. ii. p. cut up the mother and the foetus. p. G. 388. ii. Amerikanischen Urreligionen. it is difficult to doubt that at Potniae a boy was sacramentally 12 And the decisive fact slain and eaten till men revolted at the rite. 11 Pausanias. Miss Harrison. 475. p. citing the Fihrist. p. there freeborn men were allowed to partake.
flsspft cTiild-SAjCrificp
7 Cp. Juvenal Armenian and Syrian haruspices at Rome would sometimes augur from the entrails of a boy and. Miiller. Cieza de Leon. boiled them. 5 it also against the Hebrews in their own sacred books
7
is
6
. Isaiah. when besieged by the Arabs in 717. the note of Elmenhorstius in Ouzel's ed. boiling down its flesh. Brough Smith. British West Africa. 348. too. Ritual. 389. as there is again in regard to the statement of 10 Procopius that the Franks in the sixth century sacrificed children But all these records are in a measure countenanced by to idols.
2
3
Cp. Thus. lvii. and Religion. 12 Cp. Dieterich and Miss Harrison (id." And the step from the sacrifice 3 to the sacramental meal is short. 383. cited by Lang. 5 Ezekiel. 502-3. to say nothing 8 alleges that the of the Carthaginians and other Semites. 'The many references in the prophetic and historic books to the practice of passing children " through the fire to Molech " seem clearly to
4
5
6
. J. Open instances suggest the likeli4 In the civilizations of antiquity. pp. of which only 9 Here.
1
Among
Indeed. And see in Bury's History of the Later Roman Empire. 107. of Minucius Felix (1672. G. 490. which evidently preserves trace of an ancient usage. of course. 1896. i. 548-552." is room for doubt. baked it into cakes. 376. cited by Frazer. remains that the Christians retained for their sacramental food the
. i. Myth.
Crooke. 105. Religion of the Semites. 8.
. Mahon. iii. p. 2nd. 10 Gothica. 103. Aborigines of Victoria.
pp. Native Tribes of Central Australia. 2nd ed. 1889. The passage suggests further that at one time the priest of Dionysos was annually slain as his representative. till the priest contrived to change the theory of the ritual. Epod.
—
. 20.
expressly
made
and the atrocity
seems to have been well known in other races. and Chwolsohn. ii. Mockler-Ferryman.210
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
the old Mexicans they were frequent. 169.

p. Jesus is there
revealed by his devoutest worshippers as a Sun. it is the God
name
of hostia. for the substitution or sacrifice
baked dough image for the animal which the ritual called for.
and
this is the explanation of the Catholic wafer.
usages of pre-Christian Mexico. and might with literal fitness be so called whereas the Christ myth has on the face in the ritual of their cult The whole series of the later Fathers of it no such pretext. the
mere round cake
still
was baked marked by a
for the old
cross. Beor.
we may
take
it
as highly probable that just as
some
Christian groups ate a baked image of a lamb. Clemens Alexandrinus. there was no reason why the mystic God should not be represented in the shape of a child.
.
.
4
Cp. after all." and that the Gospels 1 all dwell on the eating and drinking of the God's body and blood with a literalness that is unintelligible on the hypothesis of mere originating allegory. with a specified sacred food.
arising often out of simple poverty.
. others would carry the freedom of symbolism further and
child.
When
nothing in
human
or animal form
(often
cult-offerings.
:
(Trans. Protrept. iii. but that was just special and peculiar sense Ceres and Liber stood for the because in a sources of bread and wine. It is true that for the ancients it was a common-place to call bread 2 "Ceres.
reverently
described and worshipped as "Jesus" or "God" in Anglican High Church ritual at the present time. Bastian. But there were abundant precedents.
. anxiously explain that the Gospel phrase is figurative but no one ever explains why such a revolting figure should have been used. 34.
. as cited. 479
sq. A baked image. Cicero. herein anticipating the
make
a dough image of a
The lamb itself was the symbol of the God and the disuse of an actual lamb was doubtless motived by the then not uncommon Orphic 3 dislike to the eating of flesh. 26-28 Mark xiv.
Nicene Lib. which finally took the doctrinal form of Transubstantiation.God.
of the
.THE MYTH OF
old
ST.
wafer
." and wine "Liber" or "Dionysos". in Anteiii. Be Nat. as in
the hot-cross-bun
as
in Christian use) stood for the
God
or Goddess
Sun
or
Moon
.
CHEISTOPHEK
211
"the victim. And as it is now an admitted principle of comparative hierology that where there is a sacred banquet in connection with a worship. They had need deny the literal meaning. 22-24 Luke xxii. xxvi. would still be a symbol and when once the symbolism had gone so far.
no evidence
1
for
an early use
. as
of a
. Prolegomena.
112-124.
But there is which indeed was too
48-58. which laid them open to just such reproaches as they were wont to cast at the pagans but it is clear that in the shadow of the Church there always subsisted a concrete conception. 16. 19-20 John vi.
ii.)
Cp.
that is eaten.
4
of old. Miss Harrison.
2
See Matt.
3
p.

) In any case. is the most probable explanation of the late
—
—
1 The usage was to eat round panicula after a sacrifice. in Vitell. as among the Christists. The great difficulties in the way of such a theory are (1) that. with the remark that the victims are said to have been crucified in the temples— another noteworthy clue to the Christian myth. Religion and Folklore of Northern India. 33) distinctly associates the eating of "raw flesh" with the mystery in which the rending of the child Dionysos by the Titans was commemorated. 30. trans."
3
2
It is not clear
. and to eat his
flesh
was
to secure the highest blessings of health. the habit of eating the sacrificed animal would psychologically involve the eating of the sacrificed man. This view has been confidently endorsed by M. Cp.
that this refers to the Druids. ch.212
close
to
CHEIST AND KEISHNA
1
pagan sun-worship acceptable by a sect desirous
competitors. 6. and even if the sacramental and theophagous usages which chronically revived 5 or obscurely persisted among the Jews he held to have died out
among them
at the beginning of the Christian era. 13.
. Mythes. and Smith's Diet. 6 Clemens (as cited. art. Macrobius. since the priestly miracle of the Eucharist was one of the main grounds of
—
ecclesiastical
influence
and revenue. by offerings of images. etc. bk. et Religions. Cp. vi. As to the deification of the victim. when the Church could safely use their symbols and turn their usages to economic account economic in both senses of the term. Onomasticon. a baked image seems the probable solution. 336-340. while the animal sacrifice survived.
. 2 Hist. pp. c. Pollux. even if primitive men sacrificed animals as members of the tribe. pp. ed. Canephoros. further. xxx. but came to be substituted for these at a time when the early way of regarding the animal as a member of the tribe had become psychologically obsolete. Nat. Saturnalia. iii. mentioned in the context
in
any
case there
are
many
reasons
for
holding that a sacrament of
4
theophagy was in pre-historic times widely practised. ii. see Smith. 1896. was borrowed from previous cults.
. an example which they were as likely to follow as that of the Mithraic The survival of a symbolical resurrection-ritual and Lord's Supper. were in many cases avowedly superseded. 27. 1st ed. 4. § 5. the Christians
seem to have had alongside of them. of Ant. pp. as cited.
Alike then as to the Gospel myth and the charge of child-eating. Religion of the Semites. See the question of the pagan origin of the wafer discussed in Roma Antiqua et Recens.. is proved by a remarkable passage in Pliny as to the praise due to the Eoman people for " having put an end to those monstrous rites " in which " to murder a man was to do an act of the greatest devoutness. as we have already noted.
in
of
the pagan period to be readilymarking itself off from its leading
It was apparently adopted with other institutions of sun-worship after the Pagan cults were disestablished. iv. cannibalism the eating of the baked image of a child in the 6 Dionysian mysteries. and
the wafer withal
was
extremely cheap. where animal sacrifices went on. Suetonius. like the others. Crooke. 1889. ed. in the cult of Dionysos. (Cp. 44-5. which is the point in hand. they had still a psychic reason for selecting the animals (2) that among known primitives human sacrifice has always been common and (3) that in most of the civilized cults of antiquity human sacrifice figured as a far-off thing. pp. where the Druidical sacrifices are specified. c. i. 167. 4 It has been ingeniously argued by Professor Robertson Smith (Religion of the Semites. And that this rite. i. while others substituted images. Reinach (Cultes. iv. and probably some groups continued to eat one of the God's symbol-animals. and Frazer's Golden Bough. 16. 5 Compare Robertson Smith. Human sacrifices.). 341-6) that human sacrifices did not ante-date those of animals. 3 But see Strabo. 7.

I have carried the Cernos [said by the scholiasts to be a fan=Ztfc?io?ij. again. trans.] 7 But cp. 534-6.
George Cox (Mythol. note) observes that "no Greek derivation has been attached to this name. equally 5 and again of that of Agdistis. born of Gaia. Golden Bough.
There
is
(
. 404. In the artistic treat-
Miss Harrison points out. Be Errore.
4
. I have drunk out of the cymbal. which certainly cannot be explained by reference to any Greek word. 1st ed.
554
. which was bound up with Though the former tale was allegorically understood the Dionysiak. see Frazer. 29) :— " I have eaten out of the drum.
of Erichthonios at Athens.
62. that would hardly account for its invention nor would the allegory put a stop to the ritual practice.
1
Preller. And the Servians have many mythic ideas in common with the Greeks.
eating. the well have been a 7 On that view the carrying of basket. 6 Arnobius. ii.
Mythology and Monuments
of
1890. 9 Compare however. 19.
Sir
i. [The identification of Semele with the earth is now established by Miss Harrison. a resemblance between this and the Phrygian formula in the worship of Cybele.
xxvi-xxxv. 1 of the spread of vine-culture. cited by the same author Id.
i. Prolegomena. and further Orpheus. p. cited. For an explanation of the Phrygian ritual as that of a " sacred marriage" see Miss Harrison. 27. the Earth Mother. v.. Firmicus. as
lid of
the chest
of wicker-work. We have seen that the Divine Child figured in the birthand as the images in the ritual of Dionysos as in that of Horos
Erichthonios.
THE MYTH OF
myth
of the
ST. born of Demeter. pp. the image was simply a variant of the usage of carrying an actual child a practice always open to the objection that the child might
ment
of the
myth
is
of Erichthonios. 8 As to the same idea in connection with the sacred victim among the Khonds. I put
. History of Servia. or of Semele. the sinister process of primitive casuistry by which the Mexicans
it
in the basket. These figures would hardly be of marble. of Aryan Nations.
and out of the basket into the chest" (Clemens.
Ancient Athens. 1882. Griech." Cp. 5. the Earth..
18. i. A connection between the child-carrying and the ritual of childof the Titans rending the child
myth
of the rending of
." But it has not been noted that in modern Servia to-day Semlje is actually the word for the Earth. See Ranke. 260.
Diodorus Siculus. pp.
p. the Eleusinian formula :— "1 have received from the box having done.
Myth.
.
The whole may
—
at
any moment take to crying. 42-43.
2 3 5
Pausanias. 32). is brought out in the peculiarly parallel case of the ritual of the arrephoroi or bearers of " nameless things " in the cult
The explanation of the myth of the was not to be opened is probably that given 3 by Miss Harrison. Eng. borne by the Earth to the Earth 6 Jupiter. to the effect that the Kistae carried by the maidens contained figures of a child and a snake. I have slipped into the bedroom. p.
2
child in the chest that
:
is only a variant of that of Dionysos.
other rituals would have a sacrosanct virtue. like the lihnon of Dionysos. Adv. the eating of them sacramentally would be a natural sequence. Gentes.
iii. his
crying would be apt to pass for a bad omen. Protrept. trans.
8
In ordinary animal
if
sacrifice
it
was
considered fatal to the efficacy of the rite
reluctance
the victim showed any
and even
if
the child were not to be sacrificed. which would be impossibly heavy they But the myth of are likely enough to have been of baked flour. ed.
CHRISTOPHEB
213
Dionysos in pieces. 386-7. p. pp. Proleg. 10.

which might very well be symbolized in the ritual of the Babe-Sun-God. 559. p. 1 He also carries the boy to 2 heaven."
infant
Herakles. Apollodoros. 18. In Greek sculpture Hermes carries the babe Dionysos " carefully wrapped up " to his nurses. in one myth. the pre-Christian existence of a child-carrying as observed in the Egyptian and Mithraic cults.
—the representations are endless. 3 Ion. Muller. Dionysos himself.
7
. in a mythmotive. iii. p. 486. 20). 31-40.
6
7
. pp. In Hindu pictures the babe Krishna is carried by Vasudeva in its swaddling clothes. Ancient Art. a river
was a
But here again the hypothesis is upset when we Weber so strangely ignored that of the mythology of Greece. could be grafted
in the Dionysia.
It being necessary to
have a
possible
story of the child being carried somewhere. The carrying of a Divine Child by a Divine Person a very small child by a very big person is one of the commonest figures in Greek religious art. Pythia. figuring in a Birth-Ritual in swaddling clothes.
4
12
is
difficult to
in sacrificing their children." § 4. O. It may or may not have been derived from the Egyptian motive of Bes and the babeGod Horos. I.) 1 K. as Psychopompos. p. 558. " a still enigmatical repre. vi. p.
turn to the light which Professor
—
—
—
At times he bears it on his shoulder. 95-97.
enough invention. Compare the myth of Typhon carrying the disabled Zeus over the sea on his shoulders. 554.
11
and so
How
far the
motive
it
may have
been ritually associated with a passing over water
abundant rain and harvest (Pagan Christs. 571. Similarly he carries the infant 4 Aristaeus. p. carries Hephaistos. iii. on Orion. 11 Id. Id. p. Introd. to heaven (Paus. the Sun-Child. 1597-1600. 3. p. sought to feel that the inevitable tears were the promise of " The Religions of Ancient America.
ix. iv. too. 562. to Mythol. the idea of making the mythic Giant Christophoros separately carry the Christ-child across a river. Id.35). yet again. I. pp. and point to art or sculpture. 492-4 Apollodorus. In the drama of Euripides he carries the swaddled and 3 cradled child Ion to the temple. Yet again. 336-9. it might be supposed. 6 and here. 12 Dionysos. 5 Yet again. and in one myth passes as an adult over the sea (above.
. c. i.
fortuitously on the old ritual-motive. § 2.
5 Muller. and 0. drunk. 10 See K. bk. for we have Herakles represented carrying Zeus over the water.
and given the adoption of this rite by Christism. Muller. 8 Muller. we know.
—
explicable only as derived from an astrological picture or a sculpture. And this recurs.
Pindar. we have a marked parallel to the ritual motive of the rivercrossing in the Krishna tale. was lord of the whole element of moisture (Plutarch. from his mother to the nourishing Hours and he carries in turn the child Herakles. we have the myth of Orion carrying the boy Cedalion 10 a tale
says Muller. Part iv. he carries Psyche over the Styx.
On
on
vases.
we have Peleus
holding the child Achilles. In many Hindu ceremonies. however.
sentation. App. Ancient Art. O. 9 Id. 2 Pausanias. carries his own 8 Telephos in his hand or arm and Telephos is a Divine 9 Child. 100)—a solar item. These three seem to correlate. or as practised
rite..214
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
Given.

arbitrary. the carrying of the child Krishna across the mythological river by Vasudeva is naturally embedded in the Krishna legend while in Christian mythology the story is patently alien. 3). finally a noteworthy coincidence the festival day of St. cc.
many
other points.
it is
difficult to
take the suggestion seriously.
Weber
is
found surmising Greek
and so putting the great period
of the
Hindu
theatre com-
paratively late. in
which Pagan myth and
it
and
ritual
were eked out with
Christian fiction.
for us are that in any case Hindu drama was highly developed at a period before the suggested importation of Christian
The points
legends
.
:
. precisely at the time of year when. on the familiar presentment of Hermes or Herakles carrying a Divine Child. water
. Apparently Pyrrhus was mythically handled very much as was Cyrus before him. the first day of the Egyptian year .
. 2.
.
it
may
state of opinion as to the origin
and history
of Indian
drama. the people of Clazomente had a grotto called the grotto of Pyrrhus' mother— presumably a Birth Cave— and a tradition about Pyrrhus as a shepherd (Pausanias. Pericles. Pyrrhus in the story is put on his father's throne by force at the age of twelve— a very mythical-looking narrative (Plutarch.
again.
and
that. Christopher is placed in the Roman Catholic Calendar on the 25th day of July. Again. Christopher's date on other lines to destroy the possibility of the surmise that it was determined by the Hindu practice and in any case we must infer a non-Christian origin. and unmotived. And. same myth-motive in the story of the kingly child Pyrrhus of Achillean descent being carried across a river.
On
that as on so
influence. save in so far as it rests on the ancient epithet Christophoros . It will need some satisfactory explanation of St.
—
—
Clearly would be represented as carrying Krishna across the river. and the festival of (< the " Birthday of the Eyes of Horos " was held on that day or the day preceding.
insists on the priority of dramatic be well to take passing note of the
In an argument which so often
ritual to written legend. at times over water on the figure of Bes
Krishna.
§ 14.INDIAN AND CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS DRAMA
decide
.
It is needless here to go into that question fully. in the Hindu ritual. in the arms of a man named Achilles.
215
but
when we
are asked to believe that the Christophoros
art
legend. Vasudeva
carrying Horos
. so impressed the Hindus at an early period in our
era that they transferred
bodily to
the worship of their
God
Once more.
and on the inferrible usage of carrying a child or an image representing the new-born God in early Christian ritual. 1 This was also.
Indian and Christian Religious Drama. which is as wide as possible of the Christian Nativity. when flying from pursuers. vii. 5). the Indian date cannot be borrowed from the Christian it depends on the Birth Festival. and almost certainly in the early Hindu drama. since in all early civilizations ritual
and drama
One suspects the is devotionally employed as being the product of the sun. as already noted.

p. We have seen the concrete proof of this in the admitted existence of an early religious drama in which figured the demonic Kansa as enemy of Krishna. emphatically opposed to him. Weber fails to raise the question of the origin of the Western usage which he supposed the Hindus to have copied.
4
Inasmuch as Weber's argumentation on Indian matters is in a manner interconnected. 1883). at first declined to admit that the religious character of the dancing had been established. p. 284. 28. 1905. Cross River Natives. 3 Partridge. barely glances 5 Berlin at our problem. in his Essai sur I 'origine et les sources du drame indien. Yet the Professor frames his theory of imitation. Essai stir I 'origine et les sources du drame indien Les Epoaties UtUraires de I 'Inde.
As usual. on the other hand
:
11
Whatever may be the merits
that they
or defects of the
safely asserted
are
unmixedly
its
own. (History of Indian Literature. p. of whose early cult 2 the tragos (spelt) song is the basis of tragosdia. and that the deification of the Soma in the Vedas is analogous to that of Dionysos as God of Beer. p.
is
widely at variance with
Wilson. 2 See the whole argument in Miss Harrison's Prolegomena. But in his Indische Studien (cited in his note to the History. and in the face of such compositions as the Book of Job and the Song of Solomon it is idle to suggest that the
Greeks alone could evolve drama." says Weber. as before. 273.). it may be The science of the
(in
Cp. 211. pp.
cites in
"that even the rise of the Hindu drama was influenced by the performance of the drama at the courts of Greek kings. Yet. And even if Greek
influences did affect
Hindu dramatic
practice after the invasion of
Alexander. latterly the God of wine. the fact
would remain
that India had these ritual elements from pre-Christian sources. 4 Though he of course discusses the origin of Indian drama in his History of Indian Literature. nothing can be more pertinent than to ask whether a religious drama did not similarly arise in Asia. as to the Hindu case in particular. without even facing the fundamental
issue in this connection. is here very " It is not improbable. 261. lecture cited. 198) he modifies his opinion. pp. Neve. it may be pointed out
that his opinion on the dramatic question that of other distinguished Indianists. 413-421— a triumph of
1
Weber
vigilant scholarship. 25= Indische Skizzen. as there has been since. the Catholic Professor Neve. seeing that Greek drama originates in the cult of Dionysos. and his theory of dramatic imitation tends to prop up his theory of religious imitation." 5 Says Wilson. there must have been an abundance of sacred drama in India before the Christian era.
Hindu drama. pp. Religious "plays" are even now invented among 3 aborigines in Africa.
. noting that the Hindu name for drama points to its origin in dancing.
whom Weber more
than once
self-support on other questions.—
216
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
1
were closely related because originally one. even to the extent of bringing Western mystery-ritual
into the Indian (a sufficiently unlikely thing). 196 sq.

Neve. A perusal of the Hindu plays will show how little likely it is that they are indebted to either. Indische Alter thumsTcunde. ii.
217
Hindus may be indebted to modern discoveries in other regions. " The Toy Cart. Original Sanskrit Texts."
. of Ind.e. can have been obliged alone to the Greeks or to the Chinese. 4 " that the dramatic art in India is a growth and he insists again wholly native to the soil. as.. ii. p. if they learned the art from others. tr." he points 3 out. Eegnaud. Cp. Neve. Eng.
Anyone who reads Wilson's version of the Mrichchakati. the Chinese Lacnt-Seng-Urh. 1817. Alt. Cp. Lit. i. the Brief View of the Chinese Drama prefixed. and as Regnaud concludes. p. 4 Ind. Nor is Lassen less emphatic. N.INDIAN AND CHKISTIAN RELIGIOUS DRAMA
. though not a higher pitch of achievement." in Asiatic Besearches. p. 289.
2
them with the
will
classic
drama and. 1876. of the Mrichchakati. See Muir. ou6 of the
the
Theatre of the Hindus.
have much hesitation in acceding to Wilson's opinion. 50. Lit. 11. 185. Lassen {Ind. which strongly evidence both original design and national development. he adds. S. pref. " a visit of play-actors is spoken of as something customary ". and by Prof. 258 and the Asiatic Journal. in the former passage. See Korosi's analysis of the Tibetan " Dulva. The antiquity of much of the "Dulva" is disputed by Weber. note 210. 130. 199.
Weber suggests. 5 Trans. " must certainly be put before the time of the second Asoka how much earlier it is naturally impossible to say. as in Greece. London.E. the testimony cited by Lassen.C.
hence Kalidasa
may
well belong. xi. Regnaud between 250 and 620. Alt. it
is
a reasonable conjecture that the literary
representations
arose in India. p.
8
apparently following a custom of older date than the
Ramayana
drama
at
poem
itself. ii. they present characteristic varieties of conduct and construction.. " In the oldest Buddhist writings. as cited. pp. trans. as cited. 200-207. And seeing that the common people in
modern times
still
played the history of
Rama on
his festival day. p. Eng. and could only have been possible after a very long
process of artistic development
as
7
. without foreign influence in general or Greek in particular. But cp. xii. That drama really represents in some respects a further evolution.
. Hist. 1157. of Ind. to a later period than is commonly supposed. 502. 148) in the second century." The origination of Indian drama. ii." 1
Probably no one
who
reads Wilson's translations and compares
say. and their mythology may have derived legends from Paganism or Christianity but it is impossible that they should have borrowed their dramatic compositions from other people either of ancient or modern times The Hindus. 8 See the Asiatic Besearches. ii. 6 Cp. with the exception of a few features in common which could not fail to occur. pref." dated by him between a century B. iv. 287. 198. than the drama of Greece. 1160) dates the play about the end of the first century c.
1
2 3
. will I think be " origination " must be carried a very long way convinced that the 6 back. But this still leaves the beginnings of Indian drama very far off. 12. Hist. and the second century 5 C. 7 Weber. as cited. pp. Weber (Indische Studien. xx.

which. admits (Hist. to mothers. Jessop in the Expositor.218
religious festivals." and "I. 65.
it is
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
much
has certainly small trace of the Greek spirit more akin to the romantic drama of modern Europe. 7th ed. 7. Cp. It is one of the commonest characterizations of the Sun-God in all mythologies. including Paul." 3 Theatre of the Hindus. to repeat.
of the Christian thesis that the
. the refutation
name Vasudeva was based on that of and Wilson's note indicates sufficiently his conviction of the antiquity of Krishnaism. Mtiller (Hist. with no allusion to any theatrical Nor can I find any explanation of the phrases " I. Senart points out. n. The representation as thus described followed the apocryphal Gospels in placing the birth in a cave. and children to " come and see " the Virgin and the swaddled child in the
cradle
6
. . is without hesitation taken by him to apply to the same deity.
. Series Grceca." and strictly
means
" the player " or " she-player.. 6 Serm. p.
Joseph
The question
thus given to
Suffice
it
as to the practice of dramatic ritual
among the
early Christians. note) that "the Indian even if aboriginal. p.
2
and Senart joueuse. there is probably no connection with the theatre in the meaning of the name Devaki. Col. 207) that "no internal connection with the Greek drama exists." occurring in The Toy Cart. In Act v of the same play (p. 323. a 'singer of heaven.
Pagan and Christian
festivals with only a moral differentiation the repeated exhortations.
his long account
(Sermon
vi) of
the dialogue between Joseph
1 The remark of Donaldson (Theatre of the Greeks. 1889." but offers no arguments. 711. 145. Proclus (Bishop of Constantinople. 713. ch. fathers. it appears. and presumably follows some earlier Indianist. p. a Vasudeva. 2. 5 Migne. here to say that already orthodox scholarship is proceeding
to trace
liturgies
passages in the apostolic Epistles to surmised ancient and that such a passage as opens the third Sermon of 5 St." K. that in the Mahabharata the father of Devaki is a Gandharva—i. 4 See the article of Dr. has only loosely and indirectly the significance of " the Divine Lady.e. Weber. 318. a
significance."
Weber translates it
:
Spielerinn. however. Col.. 26. torn. may have derived its most characteristic features from the Greek. 3 save Wilson's note on the former passage that Vasudeva = Krishna. 316. Ueber dieK.
am
a person
mortal Vastideva. constantly associated with Krishna. Patrologice Cursus Completus. June. These passages do not seem to have been considered in the discussions on Krishnaism." 2 Weber." is professedly based on the proposition that "there is every reason to believe "that Krishna "was an imported deity. if that be necessary. 432-446). p. Greece.
It
:*
For the rest. O. in his fourth Sermon. of Anc. 90) the epithet Kesava ("long-locked.
stage. They serve." crinitus). comparing the
. pp. But instead of the "ox and ass" of the normal show (which would then be too notoriously Pagan) there are mentioned the "ass and foal" of the entrance into Jerusalem. however. i. who
of celestial nature. needs a fuller investigation than can be
it in a mere comparison of Christism and Krishnaism. There appears to have been a whole crowd of New Testament figures. Senart. 28. " The dramatic poetry § 2) asserts incidentally that of the Indians belongs to a time when there had been much intercourse between Greece and India. iv. xxi. of the Lit. while leaning to the view of Greek origins. a man of rank. of course.

l. An attempt to sketch this is made in Pagan Christs. etc. and is the original Mystery2 play". ii. the German historian of the
. iv. that the old play on the " Suffering Christ " is to be attributed to Gregory of Nazianzun and Klein. 4. iv (=Gesch. Dram. History of Latin Christianity.
219
and
in general all his allusions to festivals
clearly
to
a
close
Christian
imitation of
and mysteries. independently advanced by Renan. bk.
of the rise of the Mystery-plays." is clearly erroneous.
is
so far decisive. during which
5
are simulated {on mime) or figured in the church the adoration of
the Magi. Bohn trans. the death of the Saviour. Puer Parvulus in Contem" there was no actual cult of the infant Saviour 1900. p. As we have seen. 11. Jubinal and by 7 Dr. 2 Qeschichte des Dramas. Such defect of proof would be suspicious were it not and. Jubinal.. Part ii. ch. 4 Etudes d'Histoire religieuse. 2. iv. i). p. 2. 1840. who
quotes as his authority merely the words of M. January. 51. viii.. and 4 Klein has further traced. though the explicit evidences to the contrary are not abundant. though that for the above-cited evidence from Saint Proclus
. p.
1
10
and
(3)
the later establishment of such
porary Review. ed.
7
As
.
INDIAN AND CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS DRAMA
and Mary
point
practices. . (2) the reduction of some or one of these to pseudo-history and their probable cessation {e. 320.
. 2. is repeated by Klein.
till
The remark of the Countess Martinengo Cesaresco (art. 1837.
perhaps fancifully at some points.
cited. there
little
is
Milman has made
evident need for a complete research. decides that the sacrament of the Mass or the Communion " in is itself already a religious drama. bk. in a sketch sums up that "the fifth century cortege of religious festivals. merely cites these two writers. which
was
essentially a religious service. an interesting series of analogies
between the early Christian liturgy and the Greek tragedy." 6 This statement. 117). who. carrying the statement further.
9
10
History of Christianity. the narratives in the Apocryphal and other Gospels derive from the ancient cult. _
6 8
As
cited. Ulrici.
he rejects the view
that they represented the deaths of the martyrs.g. ch. xiv.
. . again. but says nothing as to the early mystery-plays. i.
presents
itself
with
its
M. merely denying that plays such as that
8 and in his later work by Gregory were written for representation he discusses the Mysteries of the Middle Ages without attempting
to trace their origin. pref.
1
.
. the marriage of Cana.
drama. 326. 4. a view accepted and echoed by the orthodox Ulrici. des Ital. p. 5 Mysteres IneditsduXVieme Siecle. that the thirteenth century.
pantomimic spectacles
at the martyr-festivals. Admitting that there were or none.
9
A complete theory would have to deal with (l) the original mystery-plays which preceded and provided the gospel narrative. Pagan dramatic
It is further a matter not of conjecture. but of history. Paris. 3 Shakespeare's Dramatic Art. in the case of the Last Supper) as complete
dramatic representations. made without citations.

History of Borne. tr. p. 295 Lord. universal feasting and merry-making.
one of the commonplaces
after
of
Protestant
of
church
it
historians
that
the
State establishment
Christianity
borrowed many observances from Paganism. pt.
2
. The Christians certainly had the practice of celebrating some birthday of Christ long before the fourth century and we have seen some of the reasons for concluding that on that occasion they had a mystery. for detailed statements. Further. p. 1836. 1873. 2 What the student has to keep in view is that these usages. 32. which. 37. Here. of the Church. p. ii. Adonis. a Spondano. Mosheim. 4. § 3 4 Cent. See. C. Esq. 212-4. we can posit only the fact that such exhibitions did occur. 1 Wiseman's Letters to John Poynder.220
exhibitions
as
all
CHKIST AND KRISHNA
that of the
Nativity. Gieseler. rep." cannot have been suddenly grafted on a religious system wholly devoid of them. for instance.
indeed. especially such a one as that of " puppet shows and dramas.
established
when Paganism was
still
in
full
play. 1686. 1846. pt. ii. of Ec. Pacjano-Papismus. p. 256.
1
2
. 4. too. pt. p. The Old Boman World." 1
It
is.
It is noteworthy. et
passim. 262. But the most convincing proof of the permeation of the early Church by the paganism of the mass of the people is supplied by the wholesale survival of pagan beliefs in Christian Greece.
and
p. 1675. Seymore's Evenings ivith the Bomanists. 558. 5. the Western nations seem to have transferred to it many of the follies and censurable practices which prevailed in the pagan festivals of the same season. 1910. mingling puppet shows and dramas with worship.. 4. of Mosheim.. ch. ch. § 2.
. however. 1846. 1877. p. Lechler's Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Times.
. and note that such a conclusion is supported by orthodox clerical statement. Boma Antiq. etc.
The
dramatic character of the early Mysteries. were almost as inviolably secret as those of the Pagans. pierces
Note on trans. visits and salutations. Eccles.ua et Becens. that the subjects first specified as appearing in Christian shows or plays were such as those which we
ritual. 3. 1729. rep. and in the Egyptian system. 1844. It is hardly possible to doubt that these representations derive from the very earliest practices of the Christian
. 1844. Hist. Eng. as we have seen. 1. etc. such as adorning the churches fantastically. 61.
i
and
ii. i. Murdock. 51. As to this see J. § 5. ch.
§ 1. 3 Cent. 306.
De
Frazer. 1665. 24-26.. Cp. Waddington. 4 Cent. pt. Attis.
know
sect. ch. and Middleton's Letter from Borne. Osiris.
to have figured in the cults of Mithra and Dionysos. Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Beligion. c. vi. revelry and drunkenness. 1889. Compend. Inventoribus Berum.
. 79 Polydore Vergil. 5 Cent.
observes that
" From the first institution of this festival. Maitland's Church in the Catacombs. it was exactly such subjects that were represented in the earliest medieval Mysteries of which copies remain and it was especially at Christmas and Easter that these were performed. etc.. Hist. chs. in the teeth of the ascetic
forms of pleasurable art. ii. Epitome Annalium. Dr. Lawson. discussing the Christian adoption of the Christmas
objection to
festival.
. See finally some very explicit Catholic admissions by Baronius. Lugduni. Hist. Merivale's Four Lectures on some Epochs of Early Church History. 1906. pp. ii. 221. ch. For later views see Dyer.

§ 1. Hist.
expresses
it. This festival rite." 2
and illiterate way. as used in the liturgy. is the origin of the fable. of the Lit. 'a mystical drama." 4
processions even the
God himself was
.
an ancient writer [Clem. 10. pp. pp. was betrothed to Dionysus in a secret solemnity.
we
find that they all permitted a variety of expression for every It
appears to me that the practice of the western and fourth centuries. 33. there was also a maiden (representing one of the nymphs in the train of Dionysus). For it does not seem that the composition of new missae for the festivals excited any
particular feast
Churches during the
'
fifth
'
'
'
surprise in these ages. Dionysus on an occasion of this kind Plutarch. xxi. Gallican. carrying a hatchet. 196).—
—
221
INDIAN AND CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS DRAMA
clerical eyes
through the cautious writings of the Fathers. do what the Greeks had long done in their dramatic mysteries. 9. in permitting the use of various missae in the same church. the first Christians.
12. 287-8.
. Cp. 3 K. if any.
That
tried
is
to say. p. who bore the title of Queen. § 2-5 xxvii. Muller. of the pursuit of Dionysus and his nurses by the furious Lycurgus. which he considers as still chiefly efficacious in the consecration of the
eucharist. and by the singing of hymns. kd. Dionysus was supposed to have disappeared. Ptolemy Philadelphus in Athen.
Palmer. O. 1847). ii. which occurs in Homer. which must have conformed in some degree to the creative tendency fulfilled on such a splendid scale in their public drama. illustrated by a There were significant sentences. 3.
.
sacrifice
" Chrysostom
He
Hl
often speaks of the eucharist under the title of an unbloody
Other admissions are no
less significant
:
"There can be little. xxi.] At the Boeotian festival of the Agrionia. Mosheim. thus. i. by priests though probably only with mimic action. § 3. of Anc. who was pursued by a priest. doubt that Christian liturgies were not at "When first committed to writing. as remarked by Fustel de Coulanges in La Cite Antique (8ieme. or
was viewed as anything novel
in principle. Compare the description of the great Bacchic procession under Nic. and in public
slave of Nicias represented
[A beautiful represented by a man. Potter]
as
Protrept. but preserved by memory and practice. It is true that. 4 Cent. and personating a being hostile to the God.
1
2 Id. as last cited. ch. Italian. at similar mimic representations in the worship of Bacchus
history of
:
the
Anthesteria at Athens. pt. the words and rhythms of the hymns in the ancient domestic and civic rites were preserved unaltered but this would not apply to the later syncretic mysteries. as read even by
:
most probably refers to the commemoration of our Saviour's deeds and words at the Last Supper. like a play. and Spanish
liturgies.' in which the
and
few
also
priestesses. in their simple
to
"
The Eleusinian mysteries were. which is frequently mentioned by Plutarch. when he attributes such great importance to the words of institution of our Lord. affords room for thinking that something of the same kind had existed from a remote period." we examine the remains of the Roman. Alex. p. Origines Liturgicce.
4
Muller. and to be sought for among the mountains. Greece.
§
3 (Lewis' trans. 4. v. ch.
Demeter and Cora was acted. the wife of the second archon.
. 3 itself a development of religious ritual.

When. p. the theatres disappeared after the sixth century.
resorted to religious
drama
as aforesaid
. and even in an
—
1
artistic spirit. The Medieval Stage. xxxiv
.
one
of
their natural expedients.
Towards the end
of
the tenth
1 Mosheim (1 Cent. Hastings. The Theatre : Its Development. 4 Id. 95. History of English Poetry. 10. and typically the most ancient things in religion. p. 23 sq. Ulrici. 5 Id.
we must remember
that in
all
probability the ancient
all
race of travelling
Pagan mummers survived obscurely
through the
Dark Ages. But while the central ritual was immemorial. Eng. 3 Chambers. 2 From the first the Church had opposed the secular theatre. 4.
. however. the wandering mummers were probably constrained to some measure and a handling of popular religious themes would be of propriety
. but by certain persons during the celebra-
tion of the sacred supper
2
and the feasts of charity. i. K. as did so much genuine Paganism. p.. ch. 7 u. And this frequent or customary change. their mysteries and their festivals. it had economic distress. 233-4. it may be taken for granted that the secret drama and hymns were innovated upon from time to time. theatre on holy days drew the people away from the church and
4
.
certain that the populace of Christian Constantinople in the days of
Justinian was as gross as the
Pagan world had ever been. ii. as cited." Cp. . i. p.
by the
first
Christians. 6.
the actors even dared to travesty the tales told of the saints and
martyrs.
and
was a time when the theatre was declining on all hands through 6 While the ancient theatre subsisted. to which so many Western eyes were then turned. E. proceeding from spontaneous devotional or artistic feeling. Chambers. as cited.222
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
The last proposition is one more application of the principle which has been so often followed in the present essay that ritual usages are the fountains of myth. Warton.
Symonds. Vernon Lee. 19. 7 traded freely on the erotic elements of the old mythology and it is
. sect. Shake spectre's Pre-
decessors.
ritual. C. Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy. pt. p. from the medley of religious systems around them. 1901. can we possibly be entitled to say that they did not take something from the ancient drama and ritual of India. 1903. etc. p.
And only when we know
details of the process
Finally. tr. i. 10. 95. 8 sq. 15. reverting to her
own
this
initial practice. pp.
5
It
sion that the
was only Church
after
many
attempts at ecclesiastical repres-
in the fifth century.
till
the religious principle and
the church system of centralization petrified everything into fixed
better than we do at present the by which they built up alike their liturgy and their legends. would seem to have been attempted in some degree. § 6) decides that even in the first century the liturgical hymns "were sung not by the whole assembly. p. adding a Hebraic hostility to that which had always been felt by serious men in Rome. 6 !d. where 3 The the actor had all along been treated as outside citizenship.

ch. 329.
—
Church combining music with drama on more religious by way of queries and responses which take us straight back to two of the oldest folk-plays of antiquity the play of the child laid in the manger. is fixed the
Catholic
commemoration day
Septem Fratres Martyres. And still the list mounts. fabled to have been up in a cave in which they had hid themselves " in the year 250. i. fixed for August 1. and which. pp.
in the "
Tropes " which lead
3
way to
find the
the Miracle-plays and mystery-plays of the Eenaissance. in the
carries the
Hindu
legend. end.
would prefer
to put
it
—in
479.
in
An examination of two other minor myth-motives of Christianity connection with Krishnaism will perhaps be found not uninstructive. c. and to have waked up or to have been
martyrology
itself. Hastings. these Seven Brother Martyrs are mythic they are duplicated again and again in that
1.
2
which are a
foretaste of
the medieval Feast of Fools. accordingly.THE SEVEN MYTH
century. 18.
223
we
find the
1
Eastern Church once more com-
peting with
them
in quasi-religious romps.
is
Vasudeva
new-born Krishna across a
of the
river. We have seen that the Catholic Church placed St.
Here we are at once up to the eyes in universal mythology.
Christopher's day at the time when. as to which there were even more guesses in the early than in the later Christian
3
.27 we are always in or just out of July is the holy day of the Septem Dormientes. See their story in Gibbon. But on the 18th day of the same month we have the martyred Saint Symphorosa and her seven martyred sons. 98 Chambers. as cited. indeed. 33. This date should have been the end of the world. By that time the Church no longer knew that primitive collectively. 328. we find included in the same martyrology the pre-Christian case of 4 the seven Maccabee brothers and their mother.
5
.
That on July
not the only
10. and that of the Sacrificed-God resurrected from the rock-sepulchre. whose But yet earlier still date is put under Hadrian. ii. it is
we
—
—
§ 15. 4 2 Maccabees.
On
:
specially so-called Septem martyr mother Felicitas.
lines. On July . Hastings.
the
And when.
—
—
—
'
—
discovered. in the persecution of Decius. and who are sons of a whose martyrdom is placed in the reign of Antoninus Pius a safe way off. a little earlier still.
5
2 Chambers.
detail of the kind. i. like that. her children had never realized drama was the very womb and genesis of the whole faith. vii. point straight
back to Pagan practice. 96-7 Chambers. the
seven martyred brothers. p. our old walled friends the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.
Just a fortnight before.
Thus we have the
Fratres Martyres.
The Seven Myth. the very face of the Christian martyrology. as the scrupulous Butler
1
.

ladies of about seventy years.
1
who
adored
the crucifix seven times a day. whose holy day is somewhat belated. and when it set passed them on the left. or was. the leaders. another axes near two others
. in which clubs lie beside two of them a knotty club near and a torch near the seventh. who is old. 1812. a sufficiently obvious
of the Christian legend. In the Musaeum Victorium of Rome is.
with their eyes open. still youths.
—
times.
so as to help to cover the martyrological ground.
who
and the seven of Samosata (whose actual date of martyrdom was June 25) also divide off from the July group in respect that two of them. is flogged with loaded whips like the eldest son of Felicitas and." Rodwell's trans. two with clubs. 1st ed.
vii. That the Seven Sleepers are of the same myth stock is clear. p.
Now
the general feature of the other martyrdoms
2
is
the variety of
Of the first seven.
end
1
of the world.
. In one version in others the time is under 200 years. are old. " The Cave."
the tortures imposed. and are frequently called boys. Samosata. ed. in the plaster group they are beardless. whose mothers were martyred before or after them." and the sun when it arose passed on the right of their cave. December 9 and the seven Virgin Martyrs of Ancyra.
. in their final Rip Van Winkle aspect. The seven Maccabees are not so much particularized but of the seven of Samosata.
If the chronology of Julius Africanus were accepted. and that the remaining
five in
the story are represented as joining these two. 359-60. Again. one thrown over a precipice. under the dates given. and " in ancient martyrologies and other writings they 3 In the Koran. though the Sleepers are commonly conceived. 212. again.
. they are finally despatched in three different ways. naturally. and three beheaded and of the sons of Symphorosa each one dies a distinct death.. they
sleep. they themselves suffering between July 10 and August 1. but in the
Armenian Church on June
20.
We
are left with four sets of Seven
Martyrs. For these legends see Butler's or any other Lives of the Saints.
. three of them sets of brothers.
Sura 18.
— a longer period than that
sleep of only
bad times. one is flogged to death with loaded whips.000 years.224
CHEIST AND KRISHNA
Nor
There are further the Seven Martyrs of is even this all.
2
3
4
Butler.
. for
them a
. though all are crucified. and
who
in the
Roman
Catholic Calendar are
commemorated on May
18. ably youths or boys
. a plaster group of them.
. all have a different mythic origin from
in the four first cases are invari-
the seven brothers or sleepers.
Doubtless the Seven Virgins. etc. the first. 469 would be the year of the on Tertullian's (Magian) view that it was to last 6.
.
still
" testifying" in
309 years
gives
which 4 and they are guarded some 227 years by a dog while the Deity " turned them to the right and to the left. who are placed under Diocletian.
.

which is evidently an addition. of course.
1
2 it. as the reader need
hardly be reminded.
Q
.
3 "
An infinite number of beauties may be extracted from a careful contemplation of Philo Judceus. etc.
it
beyond an uncalculating sugges" It
is
tion that
xxi. Vedic." So we are to suppose that the Catacomb artist painted the seven fisher disciples. as later to the institution of the seven Christian deacons. Bonn trans. again. i."
Seven.
225
And
the mythic dog. about 600 B.
Now. Isis and Osiris. The picture could not have been painted for the story but the story might very well be framed to suit the rite. There was. rulers of the Roman sacrificial feasts. Boma Sotteranea. the
seven pious priests.
many other cases. Plutarch. vol. and his
believe. Banquet of the Seven Wise Men.
these exegetes. Eig Veda in connection with the worship of Agni. of the breed of the dogs who. Wilson's trans.
Plate xvii. on the shore of the lake."
4
Robertson Smith. .
3
that constantly figures in Jewish.
Mohammedans
go with the Seven to heaven.
represents the meeting of Jesus with seven disciples
1-13) after his resurrection. And here at least Mithraism had handed on to Christianity
. " that
He
an institution of ancient India. iii. ii. Cp.
is
a
'
sacred
number"
lore
. 120. in certain old Semitic mysteries.
a fresco representing a banquet
authorities
who
4
are labelled as the Septem Pii Sacerdotes. as cited. was one more fiction to explain a ritual usage. 101.C. 115.
is
and other ancient
and there
reason to surmise here.
not stated. is to
connection with the Sleepers doubtless hinges on the ancient belief that he " has the use of his sight both by night and by day.
i.
5
G Big Veda Sanhita." argue
Himself sat down and partook of the meal 5 with them. p. iii. He is. 156. however. stating that
is
common. the rite is probably a widespread one for in the Dionysiak myth the Child-God is torn by the Titans into seven pieces and
in the
. which existed before the painting. whose figure is left to the imagination. is plain that the picture is either Mithraic pure and simple or an exact Christian imitation of a Mithraic ceremony and indeed it is very likely that the story in the fourth Gospel. c. without a
word
(John
of misgiving or explanation. Diodorus Siculus.
67-8.87. as in so
is
a
Christian
connection with Mithraism. Plutarch. 273. Beligion of the Semites.
and pp. " were solemnly declared to be the brothers of the mystae ". Appendix B. 44. Among the admittedly
Mithraic remains in the Catacombs
of seven persons. 265. in place of the original three. the very Catholic
it
who admit
the Mithraic character of the picture have put forward an exactly
similar one as being Christian.
ii. for the seven priests figure repeatedly 6 But. p. the founding of which was attributed to Periander.
. vol. It may have been Mithraic example that led to the creation of seven epulones. 355. a traditional ceremonial banquet of Seven Wise Men at Corinth. in the presence of It their Lord and Master. banqueting at an elaborately laid table. ii. sitting on a couch. The Septemviri Eimlones appear often in inscriptions.THE SEVEN MYTH
indication of the solar division of the year.

July 15 Now. undergo their deaths with unparalleled fortitude. 5 as St. p. 225. vii. reproduced in Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens."
. Mallet's
'
Intr. being captured in Norway. whereas the names of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus Maximian.
:
We
The seven stars" [in Sanskrit. trace such a myth minutely to all its 2 and there is a risk of oversight in bracketing it with all the Sevens of general mythology. Vitalis. So. and Martialis. became the abode of the Seven Poets or sages. that on p. 283.
are to rise again. lib. 488-494. 1890.
" seven "
seasons. that being the doctrinal lesson in the story of the
Maccabees as well as in those of the Christian Martyrs. of Denmark. first rikshas. " the ward of the middle-root of the world-tree". Dionysius. and Symphorosa^ propitious. Swithin's day. the seven economic months " of Northern lore and in Germany and Sweden the day of the Seven Sleepers is a popular test-day of the weather. Sylvanus. and the Seven while tending sheep. who enter the ark with Menu (Minos) and reappear as the Seven Wise Men of Hellas. Martinian. The Rev." the seven changes of the weather. profitAnd the source of the legend is put beyond all doubt when able. the Seven Children of Ehodos and Helios (Pind.
"
sages] "
. of course.
. the very first stantine name of the Septem Fratres Marty res is Januarius. having been trained to despise death and all suffering. 26. Conhave no connection with a weather-myth. Verrall. shiners. however. to Hist. 2 The myth gets into Danish history in the story of the seven young Danes of Jomsburg. Serapion.—
226
there
is
—
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
reason to surmise that a Banquet of Seven gave rise to
1
that story. p. to Fergusson. who. fell Champions of Christendom. by Miss Harrison and Mrs.
Sir
sets of
George Cox. Sir George Cox traces these generally to the seven stars of Ursa Major
parallels.
. Teutonic Mythology. we are always in July is for us." 3 " Epimenides asleep one day in a cave. The Irish before the Conquest] and in the Seven Champions of Christendom and thus the idea 4 of the Seven Sleepers was at once suggested. bears later rishis. and they awake They are in fact the at the blast of the trumpet of Ragnarok. too. In the Northern Sagas the Seven Sleepers are the sons of Mimer. Cp. 01. and did not awake until more than fifty years had passed away. 132). have the names alike of Felicitas. they are "put to sleep" in "bad times" after their father's death. 278. useful.
4
Id. Fertility. pp. p. But Epimenides was one of the Seven Sages. 5 Rydberg.
—
—
—
1 See the bas-relief from the Dionysiak theatre. who reappear in the Seven Manes of Leinster [ref. Each "testifies" separately. does not connect these groups with the Seven Martyrs whereas Christian and Teutonic mythology In every case the point is that the Seven alike entitle us to do so. John. and the list includes the names of Felix. 4. Malchus. all of which have a seasonal suggestion.
. 3 Mythology of the Aryan Nations.
cannot here.

the more definite notion of the quatuor anni tempora . Dei.
whom the persecutor drowns in a lake. the ancients had two respect of the symbols they bear. As his authority he quotes a certain Syrian.
530.
23.
whose holy day. the myth is originally Teutonic though he notes that " Gregorius says that he is the first who recorded in the Latin language" the miracle of the Seven Sleepers. conceptions on the subject one of three Horse. but that the seven Pleiades of Greek mythology were rain-givers. In the view of Dr.
Hymn. 3 the other. she bearing symbols.
'
—
not only that. And the Christian myth-maker in his turn has simply combined them anew. in Cererem.
. are mere developments of those in the glyph of Felicitas and her children and the whips in particular are
—
.
Eoman Goddess and
.
but the
flails of
the harvest time. O.
that of the seven boy and
of
.
1 Felicitas Tiberius.
1761.
3
815-16. the sleeping
Endymion was located in a cave in Latmos near Ephesus. just as he says the northern Seven Sleepers did.
It
is
doubtless this idea that occurs in the legend of the Seven
Virgins of
Ancyra. Eydberg. "not before known to the Church of Western Europe.
Suetonius. that the myth could always keep the same cast and it may be that it is at bottom the same as
.
2
See the reproduction by Spanheini.
18. iv. which are the motives of the various forms of martyrdom. c. but they bearing none
while
on the other are four boys. Eydberg himself candidly notes. Ancient Art. in Callimachi
ii.
K. p. of course. There was also need of a man from the Orient as an authority when a hitherto unknown miracle was to be presented a miracle that had transpired (sic trans. adding the four to the three and making seven sons of Felicitas. Thus can myths be made.
On one
side she herself is represented with
three children.
girl victims of the Minotaur in the legend Theseus but there is certainly a close kinship between the Teutonic and Christian forms under notice. Ernesti. who distinctly stand for the seasons in 2 Now.
ed. and May 18. as Dr.
It is not to be supposed. 5. accounting for the Temporum as he thought fit. Obs.) in a cave near Ephesus.' who had interpreted the story for him. who were " not seasons.
was separately
Augustine. is set just about the time the Pleiades
deified. properly speaking.
Be
Civ." It might be answered to this
." and who were often represented without attributes. Muller. and the medal under notice simply presents both fancies.THE SEVEN MYTH
we
find that
227
inscription
1
Temporum
Felicitas
is
actually the
on
her
ancient coins or medals representing that
children the seasons. The symbols in the Museum at Eome. for the winter was never a Hora. and presided
over navigation.

ii. the Graeco.
"seven bonds of heaven and earth" which in the ancient Babylonian system were developed from the seven 3 But Gregory's derivation planets and their representative spirits. in the form of Martanda. 105. Ante-Nicene Lib. See Wilson's Rig Veda Sanhita. Cp.Syrians had their doctrine of the 2 seven zones or climates into which the earth was divided. vol. the sun. pp. who follows the Bhagavat Purana. 82.
. 283. Cp. where also are located the Septem Fratres Martyres. Lenormant. removes Krishna. besides. b. Chaldean Magic. while commonly he is the eighth. 168."
by the
fact that in the
. It is hardly possible to doubt that there has been a manipulation of an and the suspicion is strengthened by the confused earlier myth-form fashion in which it is told that after the birth of the divine child the parents' eyes were closed by Vishnu. " In the Veda. 153. 102. of the Christian myth from the East. 173. Devakf's eight children are said to have been seven sons and a daughter but only the six sons are said to have been killed by Kansa while in the Bhagavat Purana her seventh child is Bala Rama.
tr. just as the northerns had their seven seasons the zones being doubtless
rise. of whom he would appear in some versions 4 to have been the seventh. and. Id. Cox.—
228
1
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
Furthermore. 199. so that " they again thought that a child was born unto them" a needless and unintelligible 5 detail. 6 Barth. who made Krishna the seventh son. as to the numerical place of the God in the list of his mother's children. tr.. Religions of India. the seventh
is
month. 5 It is made partly intelligible in the Prem Sagar (" Ocean of Love").
.
Eng. and an evident confusion. Hibbert Lectures. Now.
. is the scene of a local water-worship in connection with Pagan Goddesses.
—
.
But further surmises are suggested
Krishna legends there is a variation. 2 Bardesan. but cites Balde.
other mythologies as in the
Hindu the number
of the supernatural
1 The lake itself. p.
.
2. p. a Hindu version at second hand of the tenth book of the Bhagavat Purana. The idea there is that the parents are made to forget the preliminary revelation of the divinity. her seventh pregnancy is given out as ending in miscarriage. p.
and
it
impossible to avoid the surmise that they have a connection with
the month's ordinal number. Barth's account with that of Mam-ice (History of Hindostan. 110. pp. Fragments. brings us back to our bearings as regards
correlative with the
the present inquiry. he being "transferred" to the womb of Rohini. See Smith's BeKgion of the Semites. who is at times 6 In represented as an incarnation of Aditi.
is
a remarkable coincidence
. 368. vi.
4 Compare M. the Semites attached a special sanctity to groups of Seven Wells and the Arabic name given to (presumably) one such group signifies the Pleiades. 107. p. There were seven bad spirits as well as seven good the number was obligatory. is the eighth son born of Aditi and his mother casts him off. 3 Sayce. «. Aditi " bore Martanda for the birth and death of human beings. in the Christian legend."
. xxii. or just
after July. 25. just as Devaki. p.
The occurrence
of all these dates of " sevens " in July. 330). is certainly pre-Krishnaite. The myth. 165. Eng.

as cited.
Gen. And as there appears to have been a legend of seven slain sons of Devaki. 169. In this light. that in of the twelve
shown us how the
into martyrs. in his translation (Krishna et sa Doctrine. where the epithet is e(38o/j. 61. p. 800. six sons and a daughter. who are clearly akin to 4 the " Adityas " of the Vedas. cited in
Id. there may have been an association of a myth of the seasons with that of the Life-God.
•version of the tenth
effect. 4 Tiele. Cp. Scholiasts on iEsch. Plutarch.
172.
of one
2
The
solution
is
dubious. rose in his solar character to virtual
supremacy and it is noteworthy that throughout the Avesta the heavenly bodies always appear in the order Planets. viii. and 5 Sun. the chief of the seven Amshaspands
certainly the basis of the familiar
Spirits "
or planetary spirits of the Persian system.
On
the other hand. Prcep.
3
It is possible that a
myth
of the birth of seven inferior or ill-fated children.
:
seems not unlikely. 1852) of Lalatch's Hindi book of the Bhagavat Purana.ayeT7)s.
2
3 Apollo. Symposium." though the text is not explicit to that
Barth. as
happens in so many Biblical cases
Cory's
Sanchoniatbon in Eusebius. but again the divine Eshmun (Asklepios) was the eighth
son of Sydyk.
20-24.
. £f38o/jLayei>7]s. Frazer's view of
the primitive universality of the worship of a
God
of Vegetation. p." The Christian legends have
sleepers (always young) could be transformed
It is a curious coincidence.
Ancient Fragments. Moon. again. the conception of stars and moon as ghosts or dead divinities in comparison with the sun
. whom we have seen with " the seven seasons.
pp.
which
myth of the " Seven who figure so much in the Mazdean system and in the Christian Apocalypse. 13-14. p. reputed born on tbe seventb day of the month. 19. " King Kansa kills the first seven children of his sister Devaki.THE SEVEN MYTH
family varies between seven and eight. Pavie.. and Adonis.
before the desired Rachel bears the favourite. Outlines. on Dr. the youngest of whom was consecrated from his 1 birth". may
by that be a primitive cosmogonic
explanation of the relation of the " seven planets " to the deity. followed
who
is
attains
supreme Godhood. Evang. Mithra.
"
229
[II
To Kronos
or El] were
and again to him were borne borne by Astarte seven daughters by Rhea seven sons.
Hebrew Mythology.
cult
survived in
.
7
M.
these seven sons of the "celestial
man" may
7
be duplicates of the
identified
seven sleeping sons of the northern Mimer. Osiris.
of the
one version
myth
Hebrew
patriarchs the undesired
8
Leah
.
bears to the solar Jacob seven children.
whose
such as those of Dionysos. heads the first chapter. the
while in the dual legend of
Rama and
solar Joseph Krishna the younger brother
of pairs
becomes the
1
greater. was probably first known as tseventh-day-born.
e
5 6
Goldziher.
p. the Sun coming last. who finally dominates everything. Seven against Thebes. xxx.

" and who are 11 always united with Thut. 58-59. 263. derived its Egyptian name. 49. there being indeed eight 6 "planets " in the Indian system. Yet again. . 270. 4 For an ingenious if inconclusive attempt to find an astrological solution of the problem. ii. Venus. iii. 60) he is the eldest born. in Asiatic Researches. p. Cp. ii. In Hesiod {Theogony.
—
. Dorians." Again. 2 Asiatic Researches. Note C. 3 Jones. pp. figures in the Vedas as well as seven.289. 258 Patterson. they do not square with the eight births of
Aditi. 8 K." It is a conflict of myths. Callimachus. 145. p.
and though these might be connected with the
slain
children of Devaki. but in the Iliad (xv.
3
Hindu
lore as preserved
six
six
. 55.
plexity as to Hesperus
8
Finally. tr. the date of the birth
in late texts appears to be August.
.
It could
be wished that
Weber
had brought his scholarly knowledge to bear on the problem of the meaning of these dates rather than on the impracticable thesis he has adopted from his supernaturalist predecessors. that was seen now at dawn and now
1 Compare the ascendancy of Zeus over his elder brethren. brothers 1 Joseph. 56. 261. 66. Poseidon was held to have six sons and one to trace. iv. 46. 453-478) Zeus is the sixth and youngest child. Cp. One puts it " when the moon is in Rohini. while the Birth Festival falls in July. 156. in Egyptian mythology there are "eight personified cosmic powers" "from whom the city of Thut. daughter by Halia while Helios had seven sons and one daughter 5 And here we are reminded that the number eight by Rhode. iii. Eng. n. 1824. But for this last precedent. id. to the " seven seasons " notion in old Aryan mythology. Sir William 2 Jones gave a clue in noting the fact that in the Brahman almanacs there are two ways of dating Krishna's birthday. 7 Tiele.
. on the eighth of any dark fortnight
the other
As
is is
when the sun is in Sinha. 6 Barth. Outlines. Esau and Jacob. Pharez and Zarah. " at the end of which the revolutions of the sun and moon
. O. Salverte has followed some account which makes Krishna the seventh child of Devaki. Muller. viii. 182. 204 cp.
again nearly coincided.
it
is
probable that the old per-
and Phosphorus the question whether it was the same planet. the genesis of which is so difficult 4 In Rhodes. it might be suspected that Krishna had been made the eighth child of the Divine Lady because he was the eighth incarnation of Vishnu but the Aditi myth is a strong reminder that the story of the eight children may be older than the scheme of the Avatars. it has been pointed out that the Pythian cycle of eight years was one of ninety-nine lunar months. vol. i. as cited. 43. 281. v. Manasseh and Ephraim. Hermopolis. 5 Diodorus Siculus.
—
Reuben and
The suspicion
of
manipulation
is
further strengthened by the
fact that. but nevertheless to be distinguished 7 from his seven assistants.. see Salverte's Essai sur les Noms.
The number
in
it
impossible to speak.
230
of
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
Ishmael and Isaac. Herodotus. Hymn to Zeus.

who accepted the Judaic (On the Truth of the Chr. Beilage.
— —
—
is
six days. 19. 38. On the general problem cp. Lucan speaks of Saturn as a baleful star with " black fires. the perfect
number." Bentley proposed to read Caprxcorni for Batumi. It was really settled in pre-Sernitic Babylonia long Sayce. xvii. the priests on that day. of course. in connection with India. 336. 6 2 Carm. as apart from the deity. 1874 (iii. pp. Eng. as to India. Indian Antiquary. it is a suggestive though imperfect coincidence that among the ancient Semites. are also called Matris or mothers However. Max Muller. iii. 15.
. 7. 6. 90) Philostratus. Das Alte Indien. like the black Krishna. Be Civ. Bei.
bears signs of transformation from bad to good. 23. In Somn. Virgil." So there are two accounts of the number of children borne by Megara to Herakles. 98. i. iii.
. since in ancient Italy he was both a good and a malevolent
5
deity. Dionysius of Halicarnassus. 113. des Alterthums. 13. p. See below. i. Horace. p." signifying gloomy. March. See further Lucan.
. p. the possibility remains that a weekmyth may after all be bound up with the legend of Krishna and the
The names of the days of the week. a mere astrologers' fancy. note. Augustine. iv. v.
. i. 2. It may very well be that this ancient perplexity is the origin of the odd phrase in Ecclesiastes (xi.Itel. ii. as to the number of the Pleiads. the five formed the basis planets anciently known. Mythological confusion was doubtless caused by the meteorological significance of the star. one from the Fiji Islands! See also the same work.
. Life of Apollonius of Tyana. 4 Gesenius. The Day of the Sun or Lord's Day was certainly a popular institution under Paganism. end. in which the sun has always the 3 place of honour. 5. 232. but for Christianity and its inheritance of the Jewish seven-day period as a leading measure of time"— a somewhat extreme statement. 8) makes the sons four in another (ii. Kuenen.THE SEVEN MYTH
:
231
at sunset a problem which was said to have been settled by Pythagoras may underlie the alternations of a seven and an eight myth. viii. Saturday) to their supreme and sinister deity Saturn. 1830. Le Clerc long ago urged the planetary basis against Grotius. Prolegomena. or enemies of as many deities. 116) eight. (Duncker. clothed in black. Religion of Israel.
On that view.
. some authorities reduce the number to seven. ii. p. deor. Christianity without Judaism.258. and the sun and moon of the seven-day division of time. 569. and Pindar (lath.) Apollodoros in one place (ii.
. for a surprising number of other instances. Theatre of the Greeks. 82-3) notes that "the eight Sactis. 344. citing Nordberg. 2. Jesaia.) 5 Cp. Juvenal. on which a curious question arises.
. 538. 652. i. 7th ed. Now.
before his time. from inferior to superior. 1870. Hibbert Lectures. Baden Powell. It would seem as if an eight myth and a seven myth. Georg. ministered to 4 the God in his black six-sided temple he having made the world in
six slain children. Commentar ilber d. 233. ii.
1
Cicero. 81. ii. 264 Wellhausen. both 2 of irretrievable antiquity. tr. 1857. remind us that the " seven planets " that is. see Von Bohlen. and " saturnian " as signifying the golden age. 3 On this point. See Mr. who consecrated the seventh day {i. though the Egyptians had it but the Greeks early had a sacred seventh day. the Greeks and Romans had not the week of seven named days. Macrobius.
2
Compare Macrobius.
. Lex. 2ter Theil. 81) writes that the planetary day-names would have remained to Europe. Gerald Massey's Natural Genesis. iii. 11) three. pp. 104-5. i. p. 41.
This deity. ii.e. and also to Eight"— a formula which the commentators seem to regard as having no special meaning. Scip. Colebrooke (Asiatic Researches. vi. i. 4. i. True. The two numbers appear again in Micah. the planet most distant from the sun. In Somn. vii. 80. Gesch. but
it is
none the
nat. 76 ff (Donaldson. p. giving ingenious but doubtful reasons. 2. Eel. Compare the words "saturnine. On False Analogies in Comparative Theology. Scip. ancient and modern. Contemporary Review. 90-93.
Of course Ovid's etymology
Be
untenable. 2): "Give a portion to Seven.. 16) but Professor Whitney (Life and Groivth of Language. 245 ff The origin of the week appears still to be disputed. Pherecydes making them seven. had been entangled too early to permit
1
—
of
any certainty as to their respective
origins.

writing in the third century. The same principle held in Babylon. It is to be noted. 7. And not the least curious parallel between this and the Krishnaite festival and our own Christmas festival is the old custom of making. Miiller.
^Eschylus. 413.. 22. Each gate has its God. See also Hesiod. 238. vi. 4 and Preller.ZEsch. Saturnalia. which were given as presents. Cp.
December 17 but the time was one of universal goodwill. and to come. 7th ed. and the virgin Athene presides over all. 770. Bk. v. Tacitus. Balder dwells in the seventh celestial house. and identified with the sky and the sun (Macrobius. 249. 16. Myth. and sun. in the case of Grimm's story of the wolf and the seven little goats. 801. p. Preller.
4
children. Hist. c. Ancient Art. Mithra.232
CHEIST AND KEISHNA
him Saturn. In ancient Scandinavia."
1
the chief of the Gods. 22). In the Mithraic mysteries. that Kronos (= Saturn) was represented in art with his head veiled (K. Miiller. from
. Diogenes Laertius. 270. as cited. especially to
. 7 Scholiast on . 348 and refs. last cit. equally God of Latium. or "hiding God. finally. Bum. Le Message de Skirnir et les clits de Grimnir. as in so many other myths. In the Mithraic mysteries Saturn had the " first " Origen. p. as last cited. whose image had two faces. Against Celsus. Works and Days. 85. i. the festival lasting for seven days.
i. tr. Bergmann. was lord of the seventh gate.
a dualist nature-
myth behind
have
it
the detail of the mutual slaughter of the two opposed
brothers at the gate of Apollo. p. Saturnalia. Donaldson. Tylor. 520).
who
die in the attack
it
and though in the Hellenic legend of the seven chiefs on the seven-gated city the basal myth is much
can hardly be doubted that there
is
sophisticated.
10. little images. Seven Against Thebes. 2 It may be that. the Deus Latiaris. i. 57). p.
." just before the feast of the New Year in honour of Janus. Miiller.
To return
to that
:
we
find
that in seven-gated Thebes. Theatre of the Greeks. Cp. Macrobius. 350. 14. calling up thoughts of the golden age past.
. In four months.
4
5 6
Preller.
5
This
is
away from the week-myth. Apollo the Sun-God is lord of the seventh gate because lord of the number seven. followed by Dr. at the time of the Saturnalia. the gates being named from the planets. the Sun-God. two in each half of the year. and Herodotus (vi. The wolf is the darkness (Kansa was black) who tries to swallow the
by
who was by many reckoned
gate. i. if we can trust the Grimnismal. Dorians. moon. the "leaden. the Deus Latins. 269. 228. Origen. and born on the seventh day
of the
month
7
.
2
3
Fasti. the seventh day was sacred to Apollo. Eng. Life of Plato. Cp. i. pp. p. p.
1
less significant that for
or
God
of
Latium. because in him was the end of the old and the beginning of the new year. is the Deus Latens." considering that Saturn was commonly opposed to Jupiter. i. too. tells that the Latins kept the festival of the Saturnalia in December " to commemorate the hidden 3 God. Thus he was celebrated at the time of the greatest cold.: Macrobius. 11. 10.
. p. who makes the seventh day of every month as well as the day of each new moon sacred to Apollo in Sparta.
plausibly explained
More obvious
Sir
is
the conception as
we
George Cox. the illustrious king of the race. the name helped the theory as to Saturn's " hidden " character but in any case the theory was persistent and Herodian. Preller. as cited. 414. O.

note. to the History of Israel. xxiii. Prolegomena
Cp. There is one other possible key to this part of the Krishna
In old Hebrew usage the month was also known as the first month. while it only fortuitously appears in Christian mythology. xxv. p.
There seems reason to suppose that a change
of calendar
similar to that in the
1
Hebrew
reckoning took place earlier in Egypt.
Cox.
not arguing that the Christian myth must have I have no filtered in the early centuries of our era from India information as to whether the Hindu ritual includes any allusion to Krishna's martyred brothers. while the seventh hides. again.
' :
"In
.
{Assyrian
Eponym Canon. case. 1793.
p. Eng. owing to a change which had been made in the reckoning.
I
am
:
basis of all the stories should be plain enough to help to disabuse all candid minds of the notion that Krishnaism drew its myths from Christianity. Here.Gods whose birthdays were placed at the winter
In Greece."]
2
year began at the summer solstice.
2 this change of era
. But it is always spoken of as the first of the seventh month. i. that this day was celebrated as new year. 3.'
Falconer's Miscellaneous Tracts. the civil new year has been separated from the ecclesiastical and been transferred to spring the ecclesiastical can only be regarded as a relic surviving from an earlier period It appears to have first begun to give way under the
. fcr. That is to say. 9.
is
also
autumnal. p. which should not be overlooked.
who
is
observed the spring era.
.
seventh
:
"The
ecclesiastical
festival
of
new year
." whose fate makes part of the story of Krishna and these compare strikingly with the Christian sets of Seven Martyrs.
2 3
Wellhausen. Tylor.
1. as in the case of the Sleepers of Ephesus and who are so curiously associated with the
.
. 1 seq. 10. which they do not In any in the Hindu but the myth may be the same at bottom. etc.' Smith.
. 103-109. Krishna relates to the New Year even as the Western Sun.
. Wellhausen writes
myth. and does swallow six. 19). But at the very least the mythological
same month.
This formally commanded by Moses month (the passover month) shall be the beginning of months unto you it According to George shall be to you the first of the months of the year. new moon succeeding it.—
THE SEVEN MYTH
233
seven days of the week." Given such a usage in India. 24.
xii. or simply boys. 302-8. 25 Num. here we have six or seven slain " children. the myth is embedded in the Hindu story. xxix. The yom teruah (Lev.
177. In the Teutonic story the six days come out again.
in
the priestly Code
. Primitive Culture.) falls on the first new moon of autumn and it follows from a tradition confirmed by Lev. who are all either " children " of a mother who dies with them.
use depends on the Babylonian. the Assyrian year commenced at the vernal equinox the Assyrian
Exod."
[Note.
too. pp. the solar
while the lunar year began at the
solstice.
influence of the Babylonians.

having before that
time had great popular vogue."* On which Weber justly observes
!
—
—
that the festival calendars of other peoples betray similar discrepancies. when the first of Thoth. 170 there is an allusion to the Avatara of " the Brahman Nain.
and the
Classical Bevieiv. abridged ed." in some versions. too.
8 It is a small matter.
season. Earth's admirable book on The Religions of India.
Gardner Wilkinson. as
in others. Id. 2 fell on 29th August. pp.
In this
last case. Le Symbole des Apotres.C. p. Bhargava {i. Wood's translation of M. and Padmanabha (sic). Here clearly was one
more assimilation
1
of a
Pagan doctrine. Dwarf. that in Krishnaism itself there are different dates for the Birthday Festival. p. pp. which the translator had misconceived.
series. of a mythological problem which on any view is subsidiary to our main inquiry. 364. or the
"
first
"The
of
Thoth.
of the
Ancient Egyptians. or new year. 221. which gives the legend at much length.e. 217-8. the Varaha Purana entirely departing from the accepted view. April. Kalkin. p. Only in the sixth century 7 did it begin to be formally affirmed throughout the Church.
254. » Id. 260-1. which subsisted from 1322 onwards. 1899. 1867. Isis and Osiris. A case in point is that of Horus. was the dwarf's name." says Sir
J. Boar." " Nain " is the French for dwarf. 223. who had more birthdays 5 than one. 252."
1
was perhaps
originally at a very different
But during the Sothic period.
Cp. Exploratio Evangelica. We have to remember. the usage would seem to have been substantially the same as it was in Caesar's time. as cited. 52. pp. Wood has done his work in general very well.234
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
beginning of the year. 1900. c.
9
for the
Pagan vogue
1884.
which occurs
. as may be inferred from the noncanonical Gospel of Nicodemus. 5 Plutarch.
fact is that the
dogma
of the "
Weber would doubtless The known historical descent into hell " made its first
formal appearance in the Christian Church in the formulary of the 6 church of Aquileia late in the fourth century. Mr. 79. 6 Nicolas. 4 Weber. ch.
§
16. Augustine having accepted it with8 out exactly knowing what to make of it.
argue that India borrowed from Alexandria. On p. Tortoise. It is only fair to say that Mr. Parasu Rama). Rama Krishna. 146.
ii. xxi. perhaps more than enough. Man3 Lion.
The Descent into Hell. But enough. 2 Wilkinson. Gardiner. but it may be as well to guard the English reader against an error in the Rev. I 9 On this compare Dr.
though
much more important myth-parallel than the last do not even here contend for more than the possibility of direct Christian borrowing is that between the story of Krishna's " descent into hell " and the Christian dogma and legend of the same
Finally.'*' This should be " the Brahman Dwarf " or " the Dwarf Bahmun. a
I
—
—
purport. and "Bahmun. which relate themselves to the ten or avatars of Vishnu as Fish. p.
rather eleven
amounting to twelve. In that Purana the Krishna Birth-Festival appears to be "only one of a whole
B.. Buddha. Bible Folk-Lore.

1-10. is not only the leader of souls in art.
man-God Zamolxis. See Mr." Mosheim's own conviction was that "Beyond all doubt a man of that name" [i. 18. Nat. 123. Orpheus goes to harp Eurydice out of Hades and among the Thracian Getae. 6 Horn. xi. his last labour being to carry away Cerberus. ii. lies buried in the earth half the year. indeed. For the rest. comes back to earth no more" (Hist. the slain Sun-God or Vegetation-God passes six months of the year in the upper and six in the 7 under world. pp. xi. Compare any account of the Egyptian system. p.
ably very great. 453. c. Mercurius. xxiv. passing through the twelve signs of the zodiac. 298). 114). 492. perhaps the Vedic dog Sarameya. .
. p. p. 23. But he is satisfied to say that "vegetation. a form of the sun). K. and Beligion. and "wise one" (the Logos) of the Vedas." which is surely not accurate. 2. 46-52." 6 he being the In the myth of Venus and Adonis. the remarks above.
. 23. Dionysos descends to Hades to bring back his mother Semele from the dead. 19." and whose name was given to the two dogs of the Indian Hades (Max Muller.
. that the God does not die and his residence in the other world as Judge of the Dead in the Egyptian system is quite a different thing from residence in the Hades of the Greeks.
. according monuments. the real point is. the fatal boar was held to typify winter. In any case. especially the corn.ii. Here is an apparently solar precedent for the Adonisian usage. Frazer (Golden Bough. pp. 3. The old race theory may now be said to be exploded (see Dr. Bel. and Osiris. O. not Hermes] " had lived in ancient Greece and had acquired for himself a high reputation by swiftness of foot. of the Egypt. while the others belong to the realm of Venus. who early developed
. 5. disappeared for three
years in a subterraneous habitation he had
1
and on
ii. 211). 4 Odyssey. 5 Id. Tiele. and other virtues and vices and I have scarcely a doubt that he held the office of public runner and messenger to Jupiter.
was
peculiarly the judge of the dead:
the belief in a happy immortality. " appointed messenger (angel) to Hades. and is so represented 3 Hermes. that Mercury is said by the poets to discharge the twofold function of dismissing souls to Tartarus and evoking them from thence. return. p. Isaac -Taylor's work The Origin of the Aryans. along with the whole theory of the derivation of the Aryan races from India.
to the old
. No doubt the Proserpina myth had such a purport but the explanation given by Macrobius (Sat. This and other identifications of Greek and Indian mythological names have been challenged. Pyth. 626.
Herodotus. messenger of the Gods. Pindar. Bitual. It is noteworthy that Agni. Ancient Art. Tiele. citing Mannhardt but cp. Muller. Apollodoros.THE DESCENT INTO HELL
myth
of a
235
God who descended
Osiris
into the underworld
2
was unquestion1
and he goes to and comes from the Shades. mediator. Harrison's trans. the
Gebeleizis.e. the three-headed dog and then it was that he took away with him Theseus and Peirithous. just as was Hermes (Barth. was a leader of souls to the Shades (with Pushan. 37. and to advance this as one of the principal arguments by which he attempts to bear out the comparison. 483. But concerning the predominantly solar Apollo it was told that he was present in Delos from the sacred month (January-February) to Hekatombaion (June-July) and absent in Lykia from Metageitnion (July-August) to Lenaion (=Gamelion: December-January). 495. one Peter a Sarn "dared to compare our blessed Saviour to Mercury. an ancient king of Thessaly. Outlines. but the guide of those who. i. 43) but Plutarch's words are explicit as to his return to visit Horus. the Psychopompos. which last called are the realm of Proserpina. states that "Osiris. 7 Dr. . eloquence. which gives the results of scholarship on the subject) but the question of the relations between Indian and other myths remains to be worked out on the new lines. p. i. tr.
2
Plutarch. 1st ed.
3 Pausanias. Olymv. Lang's Myth. Eng. who was once possibly "the child of the dawn. Hermes himself is supposed to be a development of Hermeias. spends six months in the " superior " and six in the " inferior" signs. of course. iii. iii. like Herakles. 572. Herakles went to Hades before he went to heaven. according to the indignant Mosheim (note on Cudworth.
.
who had
introduced that doctrine. the Child-God. Belig. otherwise
made
for himself. though that part of the myth is certainly not congruous with the rest. 31. Hymn. as does the Sun itself. Isis
. 21) of the Adonis myth is that the sun. Long ago. 282) will not allow that this myth bas any solar significance asking how the sun in the south can be said to be dead for half or a third of the year. Professor Tiele. and reappears above ground the other half. 4 5 to the Shades." Such was the light of orthodoxy on human history one hundred and fifty years ago. i.

gather from later myth-versions. Greece. 492. The same conception is fully developed in the Northern myth of the Sun-God Balder. pp. 93-96. of recent discussions. O. See K. Introduction to Mythology. 249-264. a fuller study of the Balder myth. wounded in a great battle. the
myth
of
return. 595. p.
2 Gill. Dorians.
fee. Lect. the God originally passed into the " place of torment " at the autumn equinox.
descent and would become
1
B. in which some of his kindred oppose him. such
a
myth was
to
it
of
tality
conveyed
in the Mysteries. 136-140: Dr. of Lit. pp.
3
4
Wait. the gold-clothed solar child. 128The second part of Dr. pp.
underworld) originally implied his descent 4 a myth rightly connected by Ottfried
Muller with the solitary story of Apollo's death.
2
bound up with the
in which. Hatch. Professor Nettleship. But the doctrine is universal. and
to return.
339-340. and whence he is to return at the Kagnarok.
pp. Muller. born as was Herakles of a dissembling father. goes to the island valley of Avilion to
him
of his grievous
wound.
Myths and Songs
tr. 5 Common to all races.
. Rydberg's Teutonic Mythology. etc. from a very distant
period. it appears poetically in our legend of Arthur. 296. where he grows strong again by drinking sacred mead. either in the form of the equinoctial mystery in which he is three days between death and life. Essays in Latin Literature. 6 K.
6
As the
latter belief gained ground. O. 653. Eng. of Anc. 194. Rydberg's great work. when Gods and men are alike to be regenerated. 530-8. who. who after being stricken in a great battle in the West.
i.
of the
South Pacific.236
CHEIST AND KEISHNA
1
his unexpected return the Thracians believed his teaching. always prominent in the fable of Proserpine. which contains 135. Lewis's tr. Hist. or otherwise by the shaft of magic mistletoe. Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church. 3 It is even probable that the myth of Apollo's bondage to Admetos (a
It is
nesian
myth
of
Maui. as cited. or in the general sense that he goes to the lower regions for his winter death before he comes to his strength
again. 655. iii. p. 231. ix and Mosheim's extracts in note on Cudworth. who " neither disbelieved nor entirely
believed " the story in this evidently Evemerized form. and the account given above. 1847. Cp.
.. 1890. So tells the incomparable Herodotus.
See the minute and scholarly examination of this myth in Dr.
In pre-Christian
certainly
in
—witness the the solar Ulysses the the Shades Odyssey — and was doubtless bound up with the doctrine immorcurrent
visit of
Greece. Eng. is unfortunately not translated into English. Muller. in which the British kindred slay each other as do the
Yadavas
heal
of the
Krishna
lore.
we
find
it
in the obviously primitive Poly-
religion of Mithra. 105.
In a crude form. 239-246. as
we
name
to
of the
God
of the
the
infernal
regions. goes to the under-
world of Hel. and like Cyrus secretly reared. being obviously part of the myth of the death
and resurrection not only of the Vegetation-God but of the Sun-God. or Twilight of the Gods.
iv.

31. which I never saw. Take the account of Moor
:
"It is related in the Padma Purana. which he bore away in memorial of his victory. however that may be. with whom he returned to their rejoicing mother. and. struck such terror into Yama that he ran forth to make his prostrations. all signifying stained or spotted. iii.
5
Max
on "False Analogies" in Introduction
to tlie
Science of Religion.
Christian
like
myth
of
system was a result of the influence of and indeed. and Cirmira. or varied.
He
too. who is identified with Krishna. that the wife Kasya. as last cited.
Miiller.
:
. and in the Bhagavat. as to the poems attributed to Hesiod. Krishna sought and after a violent conflict slew the demon. named Panchajanya. and has the additional epithets of Calmasha. the Cerbura of the Hindus is indubitably the Cerberus of the Greeks " ( Wilf ord. There seems some doubt as to the antiquity of the "three heads" in Indian mythology
to the Puranas. p. Nemi. the Minyas. 2 Compare Mr. is a" conveyer of the souls of the dead. 1st ed. the cry 3 being "Heri-bol!" Singularly enough. and Pluto is seen at a distance armed with a trident. which elaborately described the lower regions. the infernal three-headed dog 5 of their legends. placed at the entrance of the choir of Bordeaux Cathedral one represents the ascension of our Saviour to heaven on an eagle the other his descent. V «s AiSov Kara/Wts. dominions of Varuna. art. the Guru or spiritual preceptor to Krishna. and she supplicated Krishna for their restoration. the first of whom is also called Trisiras.
Agni and Hermes. he would most likely introduce Cerbura. " Sonnerat notices two basso-relievos. "the Descent into Hades. its regent. we have
the exact title-formula of the later Christian doctrine. assured Krishna that not he but the sea-monster Sankesura had stolen the children. 308. where he is stopped by Cerberus at the gates of hell. art. In Pliny the words Cimmerium and Cerberium seem used as synonymous. and afterwards Not finding the children in the used in battle by way of a trumpet. Cp." and as such is invoked at funerals by the name of Heri.
of
: . 408). sounding his tremendous shell.
1 K. 233." But there is reason to
1
believe that the "
Orphic
2
Asiatic
doctrine. has two dogs. but on the Christian side he exhibits a number of other parallels which do not occur in the Hermes myth as we have it. Varuna. Yamapura. Chitra. the other Syama.
237
more prominent and in the " Orphic " period this fascinating motive was fully established in religious literature. O. Lang's Myth. and Religion. the regent of hell. In one " Orphic " poem. in Asiatic Researches. p." the name given by 4 the Hindus to the planet Mercury. 291-3. " In Hindu pictures Vishnu. of all mythic analogues to the the Descent into Hell. Mttller. ix. and Grote and
Lobeck
3
4
as cited by him. but. i. is often seen mounted on the eagle Garuda And were a Hindu artist to handle the subject of Krishna's descent to hell. Ritual. complained to the incarnate deity that the ocean had swallowed up her children on the coast of Gurjura or Gujerat. he descended to the infernal city. I can remember none more
"
exact than the story of the similar descent of Krishna. or with three heads. 1st ed. and restored the children of Kasya. and tore him from his shell. Arriving at the ocean.
one of them or black .
"Yama. Pausanias. he connects with Hermes further in that he is identified with " Budha. according named Cerbura and Sabula. Balfour's Indian Ciiclopcedia.—
THE DESCENT INTO HELL
.

viii. 231. but his children were two sons. which. while Cerberus is also fifty-headed (Theog. i. pp. p. and Chiiruera. The appropriation would seem to have been made confusedly. 154). it carried on a myth which. 24). Hist. tit. there
of "
" as
a parallel
. 6 i p e ter iii. Zool. ed. Nile (xvi). cited by Nicolas. 276. In Greek mythology Typhon is cp. has three heads (Theog. hundred-headed (^Eschylus. In the latter the saved appear as children. Compare the varying account of Maurice (ii. 280. following the Persian version of the Bhagavat. Hesiod. Simpson's 1864 edition of Moor's work. whether or not the Christian adaptation was made directly from Indian communications.
. 213-4. Letter to Evodius.
ii. Cp. is in that connection. stigmatized as heretical.
curiously enough. Pindar. the Christ descends to the Shades.
115-125. O. Le Message cle SJcimir. Theog. as cited. where Satan and Death are one. 385 of Didron's Christian Iconography. however. 312)." 1
:
Yama
the Rev. 1 Carm.
Now. 23. as last cited.
Krishna. 466. "the night" — which chimes with Wilford's definitions but here the assumption of derivation roust be discarded.
—
his arms. 99. Myth. Bergmann. Pyth. 3 of avenger an idea evidently derived from the Osirian system. 361. not only was the Brahman Kasya the Guru of 5 Again. as to Cerberi. closely approaches the Indian in the story of Osiris descending to the Shades on the prayer of Queen Garmathone and 4 In another view. Bohn trans. with the trisula. 186-190. however. sub. 19. and that on p. In northern mythology there is sometimes one hell-dog.
.
For obvious reasons. pp. or trident intercommunication between the pagans of the eastern and western hemispheres. 4 Pseudo-Plutarch. 825. 23.
'
Vidal's trans. 453) that the name Kerberos is from the Sanskrit Sarvari. sometimes more (Rydberg. main legend as given in the Gospel of Nicodemus. which prevails in the restoring her son to life. on a mission of liberation. Rel.
guarding the road to Yama's realm but the M. Prom. taking all the " saints " of previous history with him to heaven. It is important.238
and
CHEIST AND KRISHNA
of early
a further presumption their Pluto. the whole of this passage is suppressed in W. Of the Names of Rivers and Mountains. I know not why. 49. i. Mosheim's Commentaries on Christian Affairs. but further restoring to earth for three days the two sons of the blessed high-priest Simeon. Compare the Abbe Cognat's Clement d Alexandrie. for the more
of the
6 canonical story of Jesus going to preach " to the spirits in prison. 3 Augustine. born like Cerberus of the dragon-nymph Echidna. 29.
. 362). But the for the descent of parallel goes even further than Moor represents
. 3 See the engraving in Hone's Ancient Mysteries Described. Barth (p. These writers speak as if there were no scriptural basis for the doctrine of the preaching in limbo. Professor Muller decides (Nat. to remember that Clement drew more systematically on pagan religion than any other Christian before or since."
which was adopted by many
Fathers and became bound up
is
7
with the Pagan-Christian doctrine of purgatory.
was anciently
figured as involving
2
Thus. 1871. 295-6. 321 Horace. xxvii. and there is in the underworld a three-headed giant (Rydberg. and compare Gubernatis. Trollope. from Christ in one view went to Hades in his capacity different sources.
5 Maurice. 377). 7 Clemens Alexandrinus. and Jortin's Remarks upon Eccles. 1 Hindu Pantlieon. pp. who had taken the babe Jesus in
a forcing open of the jaws of a huge serpent or dragon. appearing in some guise in all faiths.
Jesus into
hell. See note above as to the Sarameya. figured in ancient India in a form more closely parallel with the Christian than any other now extant. p. pp. who accepted it. 228.i. 23) speaks only two dogs notion seems sufficiently Hindu. p. n.

Div.
In regard. ch. pp. restricting our special reasoning to the problem under
us.
And
if
we
are to choose between
to half-a-dozen
{b)
the proposition that
was through a Christian legend that
India became possessed of a myth-motive
ancient faiths before Christianity
common
of.
1
Greek World under
Roman Sway. Krishna's blast on his shell at the
. 3 See below. reaches the under-sea or over-sea region of " Cusha-Dweepa. 1893. Eratosthenes.
was heard that the Christian legend was more or less
and
the inference
by the Indian legend in something very like the form in which we now have it. and
easily
may much more
(a)
be
it
conceived as
suggested-by than
as
suggesting the Krishnaite
tale. The Influence of Buddhism on Christianity.
notice. 28. without any attempt being
1
made to show how or whence the Christian compiler got his story. 399. in which Krishna. 27 Hyginus. while in the Christian mythology
it is
one
it
of the
most
obviously alien elements. there can be little room for hesitation among unprejudiced students. iii. and on the other is likely to have had affinities with the 3 pre-Aryan cults of India. To which we must once more answer that in the Indian version the myth has all the stamp of the luxuriant and spontaneous eastern
imagination. we can only speculate. thus far.
is perfectly Asiatic as is the Greek legend of Pan's striking terror in the battle of Gods and Titans by his blast 2 in " Nicodemus " the thunderous voice of on the same instrument Christ at hell-gate may indeed be compared to the shouting of Mars
. 349. Cp. whence so many elements of the Christian system are now held to have come. Arthur Lillie's work. ii. in Asiatic Researches. but
is
obviously inspired by some primitive myth. for general views and details.
. see Professor Mahaffy's
2
4
. § 1.
ii.THE DESCENT INTO HELL
239
in the Purana myth. it might be that the Christian appropriation was made through the channel of Buddhism. 4 That question falls to be
Wilford.
In the Purana. 370. which on one hand shaped the system of Babylonia. and in the detailed legend
is
a confused
patchwork." Doubtless we shall be told once more that the Indian legend borrows from the Apocryphal Gospel. especially under Asoka. in the earlier part of his search for the lost children. Such an alternative. and so wrought on the Greek through Asia Minor. is not really forced on
directly inspired
There are many reasons for surmising that Hindu and Greek mythology may alike have been influenced by the ancient Asiatic mythology known to us as Akkadian. See Mr.
1890. and his smaller work. As to this. Part III. finally. Catasterismi." where he "instructed the Cutila-Cesas in the
whole system of religious and civil duties. Buddhism in Christendom. to some of the myth-parallels dealt with.'
gate of the Shades
in
Homer. however. ii. As to the general Indian reaction on the West.

is as obviously myth in a late and literary though unphilosophic stage and that this claim is made with no attempt at explaining how such myths could so appear without antecedents.
1
2
See hereinafter. i. § 10. For the Buddhist mythology. the Buddhist legends are to a great extent themselves refashionings of Krishna legends. shown. 36. The weakness of the Christian position is that it claims originality for a body of lore which.
tions
In regard to Buddhism the actual historical connecwith Christianity are in some measure made out a posteriori
sometimes points are stretched. The Gospel Myths.
Christ's cousin. many of the antecedents lie in that very Krishnaism which the prejudiced Christist assumes to be borrowed from his own. so to For the Krishnaite myths. Trtibner's ed. The scientific grievance against scholars like Weber is that they claim priority on certain points for Christian myth without once asking the question as to whence the Christian myth itself came. and may further be reasonably assumed to have existed in the great mass of popular religion that must have flourished outside the sacerdotal system of the Vedas. too.
but
it
lias
an obvious-
bearing on the problem of the relations between Christianity and
Krishnaism. as say. we have in part seen and shall see further. rather than to the Krishnaite motive of Arjuna or Bala Rama but this course is reasonable chiefly because the Krishnaite system gives an origin for the Buddhist myth. our argument is not impugned. Senart has..
240
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
1
considered apart from the present inquiry. antecedents lay in part in the simpler Vedic system. i. the general argument is But the argument for Buddhist priority over Christianity owes a large part of its strength to the very fact that. unless (which is unlikely) it be contended In some cases it that the Buddhist form preceded the Krishnaite. is plainly probable that the Buddhist legend was the go-between.
III. again. the motive of the Descent into Hell may have been taken by the Christistsfrom the Buddhist fable of Buddha's expedition to preach " like all former Buddhas " the law to his mother in the upper. as M. obviously non-historical. sub-section Bigandet's Life of Gauduma. it be shown that any of the myths before discussed came to Christism through Buddhism. virgin-born mythology. Thus the late Christian myth of the synchronous birth of the
if
and
impressive.world of Tawadeintha. since there not only is the preaching extended to a multitude of others of the unearthly population.
. Div.
. but strengthened.
is
reasonably to be traced to the
Buddhist myth of the synchronous birth of the Buddha's cousin 2 Ananda.
John the Baptist. but there appear
. If. as weshall see. then. So.

(3)
his teaching
that
those
who
life
.
.
153-5." who Certainly from Buddha "the reward of Thautapan. and the item of the dragon. stand upon is that the Krishna stories are almost always the more primitive and that if they are the basis of the mythology of the Buddhist system a system which so largely parallels the Christian it is exorbitant to presume that Krishnaism would systematically borrow again from Christianity.
It remains to consider the minor quasi-coincidences noted by the 2 Athenoeum critic between the Krishna saga. for the antiquity of Krishnaism as compared with Christianity. Our general argument.
(2)
his
invitation
to
his
followers to
"worship a mountain". as given in the Mahabharata and elsewhere. pp. then. holds good through a whole series of myth-motives in respect of which Christianity is unquestionably a borrower.
—
—
§
17. the reader will be
slow to suppose that such items stand for any Hindu adaptation of the Gospels. of Buddhism. (5) his
being anointed by a
(7) his
woman
of feet
.
See above. pp. by way. In the case of the " preaching to the spirits in prison. yet Indian. Whence came the Gospel stories ? we are rather led "fco query whether." in particular.
Spurious and Remote Myth-Parallels.
love the
God
shall not die. These are
(l)
Krishna's address to the fig-tree
. 219-225. So with the " worshipping
2
1
Id.
(4)
his Transfiguration."
By
this time. and the narrative of the Gospels.
The Krishnaite
is
story of the fig-tree appears to be as edifying as the Christian
but there
is
no
sufficient
latter to be a perversion of
ground even for supposing the the former. are details that come specially close to the Christian myth and one would have expected the Christian borrower to introduce the Christ's mother if he had before him the Buddha legend as we now have it.
1
—
obtain
. perhaps. But on the other hand he may well have had a different version or some of the details may have been added to the Christian story at different All we can definitely times.
.SPURIOUS AND REMOTE MYTH-PARALLELS
also the
241
mythic "two" in this case "two sons of Nats." Krishna's literal descent. as before suggested. as they must have been in the Buddhist.
(8)
the hostility of the demon-follower
who
"carries the bag. and sometimes conceivably a borrower from India. Some may be put
otherwise
.
(6) his restoring a
widow's dead son to
washing
. the Buddhist myth is on the face of it pre-Buddhistic. any of the Gospel stories did not
come from India.
aside as false coincidences. Raising once more the crucial question.
.

11. is certainly pre-Christian in
Europe and in Egypt.Hellenic mysteries." On this view the resurrection of the Widow's Son is only an Evemerized form of the resurrection of the Sun-God
(himself at his death a widow's son).
before Christianity in the duplicated
precedented long
myth of the Hebrew Elijah and and as all Semitic mythology centres round Babylon and points back to the Akkadians. 62. While the story of the raising of the widow's son occurs in only one 4 Gospel.
2
child Dionysos.
but there
question
is
every reason to suppose that the religious practice in
before the rise
of
is
was common long
Buddhism.
43. 21) and in another Adonis is a child (Apollodoros. and. III. In the Elisha story. it reached the Christians. interpolated in the pseudobiography of the latter as a miracle wrought by him.
4
Luke.
Yet a
Cp. i.
vii. the mother is not a widow but the husband is " old ".
is
a course barred to rational criticism. again. xiv. The disciplinary washing of feet. probably by way of the Neo. whence. Sat. again.
Kings xvii.
We
are left
to the two connected items of the anointing and the hostile attendant
with "the bag. and Demeter assists at the reanimation of the slain boy Dionysos. p. The mystic teaching as to immortality. So in one view the Goddess who mourned for Adonis was the Earth Mother (Macrobius. In all likelihood it had a solar significance. over the restoration of both of
3
whom
there figures a
widowed " mother. implicit in Buddhism and the Transfiguration of Krishna is simply an item in the sunmyth. Buddhism. If the Krishna myth borrowed in this instance. 4).
For Lactantius. is one of the established usages of Buddhistic monkery and there is positively no reason to doubt that it was so before the Christian era. again.
2 1
i. iii. . Diodorus.
." Obviously it matters nothing from the rationalist point of view whether or not these items were conveyed to Krishnaism from Christism. Isis is the mother of the lost or slain "boy" Osiris (Divine Institutes. and it would appear that in the unexpurgated form of the story the solar prophet was the real father. in common with the myths of the slain Osiris and Adonis and the slain
Elisha. 34-35. the story presumptively had a common Asiatic currency. it did so at home
.
.
8
21)
. the natural tendency
1
is
to accept
it
as historical.
. 21-22 2 Kings iv.
242
CHKIST AND KRISHNA
a mountain.
miraculous. Rhys Davids.
The
miracle of the raising of the widow's son. that of the anointing occurs in all and as it is non.
. To suppose that such an ancient myth-motive was suddenly appreciated for the first time by the miracle-multiplying Hindus only after it had taken
Christian form. But even this scanty measure of debt on the Hindu side is entirely unproved while there is cause to conclude that on the Christian side we are dealing with just another adaptation." a usage too common in the ancient world to need to be suggested by one race to another within our era.
.*. in a manner.

. "the bag" would be to Gentile eyes simply the symbol of the act of betrayal for money.
xii. since John tells the
story of
Mary
the sister of Lazarus in her
own
house. Christian or pre-Christian. Both the version of the synoptics and that of John are minutely circumstantial. 2. and marg. § 2." the reasonable presumption is that the anointing 4 was a part of a mystery drama. 9.
See "The Myth of Judas Iscariot" in the author's Studies in Beligious Fallacy.
1 Evemerism has in private gone so far as the suggestion that Lazarus may have had the ointment given him by "Dives "for his sores! There is really as good ground for believing that as for accepting the story at all. and. is only a variant of the other. which in the synoptics is related simply of " a woman. 2 See hereinafter. 6.
5 6
John
hereinafter. the smallness of its significance is in striking contrast with the claim of which it is the last uncancelled
item. i. and the remote detail in the Mahabharata there seems to be only an accidental resemblance. Div. John's synoptics version might be excluded as false on the face of it. is just another non-miraculous myth added to the primary myth of 6 Judas the Betrayer. * Oil and ointment were alike signified by one Hebrew term (Isa.
xiii. and each excludes the other. or both
. 182." in a Joudaios. Mary "the Nurse" ( = Maia = Mylitta).
moment's scrutiny shows that its circumstantiality is quite delusive. The Gospel Myths.
11
the bag
"
—
we have
the myth of the discontented Judas carrying unexplained on the Christian side by any dicta a detail
as to the source of the
money
so carried. is found in the fourth Gospel only. lvii. without Scriptural warrant. i. i. like that of
5
Lazarus and his household.) and the usage of anointing was general in the East.—
SPURIOUS AND REMOTE MYTH-PARALLELS
243
. 29.
while the ascription of the act to a "
of the Gospel-makers. p. while the
house and a strange woman. as cited above. § 17. Div. On our theory. R. if for once there was actually a borrowing by India. xi. the receptacle for the " thirty pieces of silver. and The Gospel Myths." fictitious personality made out of Gentile-Christian mystery drama. Cp. a pseudo-historical 2 And on the principle that " a myth variant of Mary the Mother. 3 Frazer. note. never so graphic and precise in its details as when it is a simple is transcript of a ceremony which the author of the myth witnessed
3 with his eyes. Isa. however (itself twice introduceduseless article." but which later fancy.
Mary " was
a normal expedient
Finally. But. 6
. 3). V. attaches to the mythic personality of Mary
specify another
Magdala. that " Judas " is simply a a Jew. since it represents a pauper household as possessing a peculiarly costly and 1 John's myth." with perhaps a general Between this anti-Semitic suggestion of Jewish usury or avarice. xii.
The
story.

" 2 It should be added that. which. but the main elements of the whole myth were soon judiciously Take the following early exposition analyzed.—
244
§
..C. 2 was portrayed as an herdsman. being indeed avowed by the Brahmans. the serpent Python by the arrows of Apollo. as later inquirers have noted.43). as Arrian has it. and clouds. Not only was the solar character of Krishna recognized by the first European investigators. the cow of plenty and. furnishes them with light. including even the scholarly and open-minded Professor Weber. the Gita Govinda. amorous.
the earlier statements. forming a circle the God is thus multiplied to attach him to each respectively.
Explanation of the Krishna Myth. " Krishna obtains a victory on the banks of the Yamuna over the great serpent Caliya Naga. as before cited. and cherishes them with his genial heat.
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
18. that sound and
satisfying explanations of Krishnaism on the basis of universal mythology were sketched nearly a century ago though they have been completely ignored by the later adherents of the missionary view. " The twelve signs are represented as twelve beautiful Nymphs the Sun's apparent passage from one to the other is described as the roving of the inconstant Krishna. as in the myth of Hermes. inconstant. the clouds are cows in the Vedas. Both in the Padma and Garuda
is
. stars. and that "the fable was accordingly to be referred to astronomy.290)— a notion found also in the Osiris myth (Land O.
." and that the quasi-historic (it is not clear if he thought there was ever a real) Krishna was as it were a "terrestrial sun or" [here anticipating Lassen] " Hercules. purifies the air and disperses the noxious vapours of the atmosphere. to denote the Sun's passage through all the signs. it was natural to describe them by the same hieroglyphic and as the Sun directs their motions. He further saw that the mythic wars meant that "the sun in the heavens fought with planets. and indeed the sun in eclipse" [here giving a meaning for the "black"]. On a moveable circle. Asiatic Researches. by the powerful action of its beams. and that
there
is
really
no more valid argument behind the
It is also the fact.
We
have seen that the
claims
as to the Christian
origin of Krishnaite legends are only repetitions of guesses
made by
missionaries in the days before comparative mythology. hand-in-hand. which had poisoned the air. the symbol of the Sun. It is evidently intended by the circular dance exhibited in the Rasijatra. and by the rotary motion of the machine the revolution of the year is pointed out. and destroyed the herds in that region. twelve Krishnas are placed alternately with twelve Gopis." He had probably met with the myth of Krishna hiding himself in the moon (Jones. This was probably the groundwork of Jayadeva's elegant poem. Abhandlungen.
.
later than behind however. 236) was Krishna "originally {primigenie) signified the sun.
1
:
represented as a Cow.
latest
1. sportive.
satisfied that
1 The monk Paulinus (quoted by Kleuker. as the planets were considered by the Hindus to be so many habitable Earths. and that this idea also enters largely into the Krishnaite
symbolism. iii. ii. Krishna.
11
The Earth
:
. This allegory may be explained upon the same principle as the exposition given of the destruction of It is the Sun.

viii (1803). whom Krishna slew in his worshipped on this day. 24.
.
picture.' Perhaps this adventure of Krishna with the Caliya Naga may be traced on our sphere. The former part of that theory was put forward also by Colebrooke."
1
some of the main which holds good independently of the author's further theory that the origin of Krishnaism lay in the separation of the sect of Vaishnavas from the Saivas. Asiatic Researches. p. 64-5." Hence he opposed the surmise that early references to Krishna in the sacred books were interpolations. inductively proved. and that of Mahadeva and Bhavani by the Saivas and Sactas. pp. the milky way. i x 293. have been introduced since the persecution of the 2 Bauddhas and Jainas. elevating those personages
Here
is
a rational. which he grasps with both his hands. » Ici.
l
of the
1
Patterson. which allegorically may be said to attempt in vain to obstruct his progress through the Heavens. there being then no part of the earth where he is not visible in the The Demons sent to destroy course of the twenty-four hours." But the same sound scholar declares that he supposes both Rama and Krishna to have been " known characters in ancient fabulous history. for we find there Serpentarius on the banks of the heavenly Yamuna.
race. as the childhood.
and to be really repetitions of the ancient myths of the This proposition. " The identity of Apollo Nomios and Krishna is obvious both and Krishna is disappointed by Tulasi as are inventors of the flute Apollo was deluded by Daphne each nymph being changed to a tree hence the tulasi is sacred to Krishna. Krishna are perhaps no more than the monsters of the sky. according to Clemens.
Gods. appears to allude to the universality of the Sun's appearance at the time of the Equinoxes. see Donaldson." and conjectures " that on the same basis new fables have been constructed. . 11 The story of Nareda visiting the numerous chambers of Krishna's seraglio and finding Krishna everywhere. who held that " the worship of Rama and of Krishna by the Vaishnavas.EXPLANATION OF THE KRISHNA MYTH
'
245
[Puranas] we find the serpent Caliya. viii.
. as the laurus was to Apollo.
. that Colebrooke would have admitted the " new fables "to be in many cases new only in their
to the
rank
of
3
application. was adored with Apollo at Delphi. renders impregnable the earlier deductive position. . As to the astronomic significance dance in Greece. Many of the playful adventures of Krishna's childhood are possibly mere poetical embellishments to complete the
. and that the legends may contain an element of allegory on the persecution of the new sect. There can be little doubt. I think. in Asiatic Researches. amongst the deities Pythian snake. contending as it were with an enormous serpent. a scientific explanation of
outlines of the Krishna myth. 7th ed. Theatre of the Greeks. 474.

" That. indeed. Mythol. Now.
is
the chariot
.
ix.
. p. It is thus that so many dynasties of Gods have been built out of the same fabulous material.
. or hero and hero.' Thus.
after thee the
'
in Professor Max Miiller's opinion. not only
of being a lover of
in respect of being a marvellous child. 204.
32:
"The husband
of the
end. 303). Indra. 86.
as the horse
After thee
. was presumably an outsiders' God even in the Vedic period. an expression which.
after thee. v. p. but
:
is all that is born as he is the lover of maidens. Senart notes 3 that in a Vedic description of a storm.
Soma. is the prototype of the
of the identities
modern Krishna. the husband 2 of wives. was probably meant originally for the evening sun as surrounded by the splendours of the gloaming. with what qualities we know not. at his birth.
all
that will be born
:
. as cited. 322. p. of Rig Veda Sanhita. we can find in the Vedas precedent for all his main features.V. like the Pagans. The Dawn herself is likewise called the wife but the expression " husband of the wives " is in another passage
." And this view is substantially adopted by the leading English mythologists. figuring as he does as a demon in the Vedas. and for the multiplications of Krishna also we find the prototype in the child Agni. p. 321. 3 Essai. p. like Agni. 6 Cox. i. 2. whether mystic or anthropomorphic. 5 Id.
maidens
"Agni. the personified God of the libation or eucharist. and the profound unconsciousness of the Argives that the two narratives are in their groundwork identical is a singular illustration of the extent to which men can have all their critical faculties lulled to sleep by mere differences of names or of local colouring in legends which are only modifications of a single myth" (Cox. Agni. the
man
cows after thee the host of the girls. as Yama. always tending to be identified with the Sun.V. like the Jews. of all popular deities in primitive times and M. "G wives approaches the
B. he is the husband of the wives."
'
1 " The story of Perseus is essentially the same as the story of his more illustrious descendent [Herakles]. Arvan. a system of types. is an extremely natural characteristic." But "it is above all to the atmospheric Agni that we must trace voluptuous legends like those which have received such an important place in the 4 Krishnaite myth ". " enters into 5 all houses and disdains no man. 369. though Krishna. citing R. " plays among the Apas like a man among beautiful young girls. of Aryan Nations. n. 1 and because on the other the priest either sees in these.
clearly applied to the sinking sun. x.—
246
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
Every solar hero or deity necessarily repeats certain features in the myths of his predecessors and this the more surely because on the one hand the popular fancy is so far from being clearly conscious
. or. 2 Wilson's tr. sees no harm in mystic correspondences.
Yama. 181. i Id. On the relations of Krishna with the Gopis Sir George Cox writes
:
" This
myth
is
in strict accordance with the old Vedic phrase addressed to
' :
the
Sun
. who. as it were by a more serene repetition of the dawn. and Yama. the Fire-God. from Muir's Original Sanskrit Texts. 291.
between God and God. 91.

224. of course. a
carries us to that of the child
Hermes
Hephaistos. iv. Sanskrit Texts. So cited in Cox.
4
. the dwarf Vishnu [lb. again. Krishna as slaying the dragon is simply Indra smiting Vritra or Ahi.
His
name Krishna. P. and like Herakles slays
.
earlier epical literature of the
Teutonic tribes. pendra line passage runs " Thou art the source of being and cause of destruction. It is the same with Rama. the God who transcends
'
the minutest of the minute.
as follows on the general question
" If it be urged that the attribution to Krishna of qualities or powers belonging to other deities is a mere device by which his devotees sought to supersede the more ancient gods. 146. there is room for tracing Christian influence in the
. 365.
all. that these myths have
been crystallized round the name of Krishna in ages subsequent to the but period during which the earliest Vedic literature came into existence the myths themselves are found in this older literature associated with other gods." p.
3
. is not more definite. the omniscient. Sic in Cox
:
2 Id.
iv.'
of
3
Rudra.
sometimes addressed by Brahma as the source of being and the cause 4 Upendra and Mahendra.'
'
of
1
but Muir. the answer must be that nothing is done in his case which has not been done in the case of almost every other member
of the great
company
itself
method
is
of the gods. however. the younger and elder Indra. 250. the interchange or contradiction is undisguised. n. and Siva the destroyer is sometimes produced from the half of Vishnu's virile power. he is Time. as Bunsen rightly insists. 371. the vastest of the vast. the producer of all. gave rise in times later than those of the Mahabharata to the stories of his but in the life with the cowherds and his dalliance with their wives Mahabharata he is already the protector of cattle." 2
The
fluidity of the
whole
of the
myth
material under notice
is
yet
further illustrated in the following sketch of Krishna's
many metamyth which
morphoses
:
"He
is
also identified
with Hari or the dwarf Vishnu. who is cited. and the necessary explanation is that in so adoring Rudra. has to Vasudeva. wnere m& Muir. the greatest of the great. But he is also Hari himself.
'
the
"
God whom
the Goddess Devaki bore to Vishnu. for he is the soul of all. As the son of Nanda." 1 And again: "It is true. and not always only in germ. he is Govinda. p. and Madhusudana. Rudra is worshipped by Krishna. As so produced. 331]. is connected with another parentage which makes him the progeny of the black hair of Hari.
as well as to the story of the limping the bull. and Hari is Narayana. is also him Krishna was only worshipping himself. the all-knowing. and that the systematic adoption of the conclusive proof of the looseness and flexibility of the
materials of which the cumbrous mythology of the Hindu epic poems is composed. or Phoibos destroying the Python. who Narayana. a name which
the bull which ravaged the herds [Muir. the all.' In short.
206].
Id. But in the character of Mahadeva.—
EXPLANATION OF THE KRISHNA MYTH
The same
writer. and is declared by his father to be the offspring of his anger. u Thou art Mahendra (the older Indra) younger Indra).
—
247
who makes an
sums up
independent and able analysis of
:
the Krishna myth. and
The character
destruction. There is no more room for inferring foreign influence in the growth of these myths than. but 250 should apparently be 150. said to be sprung from Krishna.

Bala
Rama. 147. Cycl." In the same note M. 234.
for three different
incarnations of Vishnu. The contrary opinion of Lassen Evemerism which will find." and whom M. 177.
Barth. Senart declares to be
:
indeed mythologically one
" In effect. and
p. He too has a Birth Festival. Varuna. a Vedic personage connected by name and function with Vritra. who destroys the Kshatriyas the Kshatriya Rama. which it very closely resembles he too figures then as the Child-God and he too is associated with the stable-myth in that
being also solar)
. pp. 365-7. 173. citing
Moor. represents the same weapon of
is
really only one
(Ind. sometimes to Mitra. the plough-bearer and his distinctive characteristic is an ungovernable passion for bacchanalian revels. who is an atmospheric genie watching the " pastures " of Mithra. " Pavasu " means a sword according to Tiele (before cited). who pass
case of the three Ramas.
n. who is sometimes regarded
as self-existent. The axe of the second. in which Rudra is scarcely more than an epithet.
r >
"As to his name of Bala. 164.
7
Asiatic Researches. and who figures both as lightning and sun." 1
Further illustration could be given.
!
. the Asvins. applied sometimes to Agni.
harvest.
10
1
Cox. or the Maruts It was in accordance with the general course of Hindu mythology that the greatness of Rudra. which the hero wields against the demons. whom
5
armed with a ploughshare." 4
William Jones identified with the Greek and Indian " Dionysos. which Weber supposes to be based on that of Krishna. whence his surname Halabhrit. as cited above. he was doubtless con9 tingently a Sun-God (Rama Chandra.
Rama.. an axe Moor. See above. citing Tiele. enemy of Indra. Senart writes
(p. a
Essai.
M. This is indeed certain as regards the epic Bala. but
who were early surmised by students to be " three representatives of one person.
:
163-4.
a
club
8
4
According to Moor. n)
9
10
Barth. and sensual love. like the ploughshare of the first. but whom we have seen to be probably the Herakles of Megasthenes. See Moor. should be obscured by that of his children. 163.
2. Hindu Pantheon. Bala Rama. 325. few the popular Rama. p. King's son and happy conqueror. But he appears to us under a triple form brother of Krishna.
. p.
p. or three different ways of 3 relating the same history. inebriation. ii. pp. there
ii.
503) rests on an
thunder. Senart draws a connection between Rama and the Persian Rama-gastra.
." 8 Like each of his duplicates. and Rama Chandra. .
fluence of
if
need were.
to
and it might conceivably have been his fortune become the supremely popular deity instead of Krishna.—
248
.
according to Balfour's Ind. the analogy of Krishna would suggest that it also had originally a more specially demonic significance. p.
CHEIST AND KEISHNA
This cumbrous mysticism leads us further and further from the simpler
conceptions of the oldest mythology. Alt. 132.
. p. " appears to be an ancient agricultural deity that presided over the tillage of the soil and the
Sir
"
Now. 191. who represents the moon. p. and that the form Bala is only an alteration of Vala. adherents. the Brahmanic Rama.
is
'
He
7
'.
6 H
Above. of this inter
Parasu
2
myths in the Rama. I think.

taking the Vedic allusions as representing the beginnings of the cult.
p. an exterminator of monsters.
and
partly depended on. that he is for historic India the original
.
at
all.
Treatise cited. and that it was as the companion
1
Moor. ancient has his transfiguration in the Bhagavat Gita. however.
In fine. which was the inseparable preparation for the slaying of the tyrant. India.
and as a God of Vegetation he may have been carried in the cornbasket by way of an incantation to make the fields fruitful. the finished type of submission to duty.
is
the one who. it will still be argued. the adoption of
early in our era.
that the
M.
3
Barth."
and sectarian manipulation. what we cannot maintain in regard to the enigmatic son of Devaki.
and
contends that the presence in that text of the name of Govinda sufficiently shows that the myth of the sojourn among the shepherds. On the
" Like other hand. in answer. nobility of moral 3 Krishna in turn.
176. p. has been best able to
however. idealized by the poetry of a more fastidious age. that while the antiquity of the main material of Krishnaism is admitted. and of chivalric generosity. 192.e.EXPLANATION OF THE KEISHNA MYTH
1
249
Jamadagni. 190.
p.
literary
2. a victorious Krishna.
some
of the Christian legends
But
it
will be necessary. 316. but based like those on immemorial myth and of these Krishna. character.
2
4
Moor. the passage
in the Khandogya Upanishad as pointing to a quasi-historic personage.
But. that only in comparatively late times was Krishna a deity
It
may
be. and by the myth [i. Rama is a hero. cause of his being made Krishna's twin and at standing was the 2 It is even conceivable present he ranks next him in popularity. only to state
Weber's position in contrast with the
make
clear the soundness of the latter
argument of M. points Kansa legend was already old
4
first
to the admitted
for
Patanjali. " Child born in a Stable ". the father of Parasu Rama. Senart to and the untenableness of the
former.
one
less affected
.
. had a crowd of Sun-Gods apart from those of the priest-made Vedas. Kamadenu. by dint of
survive. then as now a manifold world of differing peoples and faiths. he has assimilated clearly solar attributes.
and that
this alleged lateness of creation permitted of. as by Weber.
Weber seeks to trace the rise of Krishnaism by way of the chronological order of the references in the documents. I think.
ancient as the others were ancient. was entrusted by Indra His old with the charge of the boon-granting cow. in the Ramayana] he is at the same time..
. the legends in the Mahabharata as a development of his
story. was already ancient and popular.
fact
and so
on. Senart. p."
warrior.

be added that the antiquity
of the similar
myth
in connection with
Cyrus
is
a further ground
same conclusion. Might not Alexander's Pan be Siva. and mixed up in dubious adventures. M. 85 B. which do not fail at times to disquiet and embarrass his devotees ? It is clear that the first step at least of such an evolution could be made only under powerful sacerdotal pressure now there exists in this connection no sign of such a thing in the literature we possess the cult of Krishna is not a Brahmanic but a popular cult. M.
2
As
cited. not as
1
that Krishna
for the
was
first deified. there is no doubt that we must reverse the statement. p. the testimony of Alexander Polyhistor [fl. How could a sacred poet. Krishna must have been at first the
. be subsequently lowered to the position of the adopted child of a shepherd. Barth. whom M. and will stand very well on its own merits
fully as close a parallel to
Krishna as Pan would be
:
This testimony is the more important in that it leads us to carry further back the date of the legends of this order.C. Senart argues. p. the companion of shepherds. There is. from the epic period. identifies with the Dionysos of Megasthenes ? Certainly is the more plausible conjecture but is not Dionysos
.
1
Essai. suddenly have become the national hero of an important Indian people. the fact is quite the contrary an abyss separates each one of these stages from the next. the bellicose performer of so many exploits. but clearly mythological ? And how could this warrior. 163. In support of that opinion there is little weight in the negative argument from the silence of the ancient works which have come down to us. what is perhaps less important. no other Hindu deity who could so well suit the latter title as Krishna a contention which seems to me inconclusive in the circumstances. if we were shut up to the testimony of Brahmanic literature ? We can certainly distinguish in Krishna a triple personage it does not follow. seems on this point to go even further than M.
It
may
the hero of the epic. that these mean simply three successive aspects of the same type.
. in the admiration and even in the worship of Indians. until it be determined that logically they derive and develop one from the other. Now. 339. Senart connects his conjecture.
:
"
. In fine. Senart then goes on to cite. if we take them in the supposed order.—
250
of shepherds
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
and lover
of the Gopis.] that in his day the Brahmans worshipped Herakles and Pan. as to Krishna being Alexander's Pan. Lassen. in spite of his opinions on the antiquity of the doctrine of Avataras and the cult of Krishna. however.
? In any case. with the rest of his argument. . What idea should we have had of the date and importance of Buddhism. as has been shown above. not merely marvellous. raised so high. 2 following
—
the latter
Lassen. M. that works itself out independently. the obscure disciple of a certain Ghora. though M. Weber.

hast overpassed the sun by thine own force. a superposition not only of social classes but of traditions and ideas which could live long side by side Thus considered. Now. without rashness and without prejudice. alongside of the chronological succession.
. Original Sanskrit Texts. whose worship. having become the son of Aditi. . more or less narrowly length. It must
not be forgotten that the organization of castes creates. it leads us obviously to more ancient conceptions and the homogeneity which is exhibited by the whole demonstrates the normal and consequent development of all the parts. until the ever more powerful spread it to embrace him. "It is possible. Localized at first among the Surasenas and at Mathura. thou hast slain hundreds of Asuras. would put him in the
list
of its singers
of his popularity forced
of Vishnu. spread little by little Vishnu and admitted to the number of his incarnations. besides. of his infancy.
touch entirely secondary details. the Brahbellicose character in which we know him. in three strides. Having attained to the sky and the ether. Krishna was at represent as necessarily and strictly successive. connected especially. O all-pervading Krishna.EXPLANATION OF THE KRISHNA MYTH
251
object of a secondary cult. In these thousands of thy manifestations. Krishna resolves itself into two periods. what idea and the doctrine of faith interests us chiefly at present is the age not so much of his cult. desirous to appropriate him. of the Yadava race. however. as it remained in the sequel. the all-pervading. under the title of Avatara new theory and in its modern systems. which. . fixed in that epoch under Brahmanic influence. with the legends of his birth. only
."
This argument has been criticized by Weber in a review of Senart's essay. indeed. and the earth. identified with till at localized. thou. the younger brother of Indra. he
M. . O vexer of thy foes. he was 1 ipso facto recognized by the superior caste. in its
and masters." Muir. and being called \ ishnu. that Christian influences may have developed among the Indians in his connection the monotheistic However that may be. the customary methods of mythological analysis. independent of any argument borrowed from resemblances. O soul of all beings. still less of a certain form of his cult. the history of the cult of in a profound isolation. this cult would have sufficed to introduce into the epic legend of the Kshatriyas. hadst by thy energy traversed the sky. and occupied the abode of the Adityas. . in which. which I would not. becoming a child. iv. while differing from his conclusions. who delighted in iniquity. first a quite popular deity. attest the existence of essential elements of the legend at an epoch when there can be no question of those influences which have been conjectured and these influences finally rest on a very limited number of very inconclusive facts. the On its part. the atmosphere. this narrative has its roots in the images of a perfectly authentic naturalism it cannot be isolated from the various kindred mythological series and if we only apply.
1 A passage in the Mahabharata shows this evolution clearly enough :— " And thou Krishna. and of his youth. but of the legend of the hero. and more precisely of that part of his legend which embraces his infancy and his youth. 118. Several precise testimonies. manic school.

340. from
Panini. as to the value of the evidence for Patanjali's date given by the words and citations in the Mahabhashya. See Senart. unless there were an old myth to that effect ? 4 These questions are
1 Though. pp. Senart's
refutation of his
as to
own development
theory. whose argument is that the Gopi idyl is part of an immemorial popular myth.
:
admits that in
itself
it
is
very
" Only in the latest texts do
we
find this
Gopi idyl
:
the older records
knoio nothing of it. iii. that the Brahmans worshipped a Hercules and a Pan. given to dubious adventures. of which
Weber had seemed formerly 3
though Weber have to face and explain the fact. that
date of Patanjali. on the one hand. and how (2) the warrior hero of the epic could be lowered from that status to the position of the adopted son of a shepherd and companion of shepherds. is again too vague to permit of its being founded on in this matter. in view of the doubts which Burnell and Bohtlingk have expressed in connection with my inquiry. 3 See above. the Professor.
4
2
. The testimony of Alexander Polyhistor. but recognize Krishna only as an assiduous pupil or brave hero. of the ancient currency of the Cyrus myth on the Iranian side. or answer the questions
how (1) the deity could be developed out of the student of the Upanishad.
and as to the
to take Professor Bhandarkar's view (shared by both Senart and Barth). 157-8.
of
cows has such a significance in
hidische Streifen. 429.
Vedas is new But he goes on
to him. In any case Patanjali would have to be dated very late to countervail the implied antiquity of the phrases he quotes. Senart. his being evidently worshipped as Vasudeva: and the existence of his epithet Kesava but. remarking that
1
the theory of Krishna's herdsmanship being derived from the cloud-
cows
of the
plausible.
and the doubters
sphere. Recently. n.. indeed. But as regards the Professor's objection that the Gopt idyl is not mentioned in the oldest documentary references to Krishna. which they constantly overlook. passages have been made known from the Mahab-
hashya which
set forth
Krishna's relation to Kansa
. Senart's assumption that that work dates from before the Christian era is very questionable.
With
his invariable candour. the herdsman idyl is there
awanting and on the other. originally current outside the Brahmanic
part of our evidences will have to be reconsidered
will also
. as we have seen. it can only be said that if the " doubts " are ever strengthened. p.
—
CHEIST AND KRISHNA
252
speaks in high terms of his French opponent's scholarship and
ability.
Nor does the Professor
in
any way meet M." 2
:
'
'
The
force of the last objection I
have admitted
. the reader will at once see that it is no answer to M.
even further. the stealing and herding Greek myths. There are in the Mahabharata allusions which show the herdsman characteristics to have been associated with the hero.

Id.l{S. p. as we have partly seen above." And while it is impossible to say with certainty how and whence the Buddhist adaptations were made.
then. 5 zd. as Sun-God. 7 and where Krishna. p. But yet one more reinforcement of the strongest kind is given to the whole argument by M. 305. p. but did it at second-hand through Krishnaism. Id.
W
Id.E. variations of this legendary theme one point remains fixed and constant it is among shepherds that the hero is exiled and it is impossible to separate from the series either the vraja or the herdsmen and herdswomen who surround the youth of Krishna. a "close relationship" between the Buddhist and the Krishnaite 9 " In nearly all the legends.
9
7 8
37
. 303. 302. which ostensibly influenced Chris-
not even borrow from Christianity direct. p. 190. i.
4
2 Id.
1
or from pre-Krishnaite sources. the theory of
imitation from Christian legends were sound.
ff. p. and of various 2 the exploit against the elephant. bows by Siddartha (Buddha)
. Life of Gaudama.xix. Apollo. Hermes.
If. p. the 8 infant Buddha takes seven marvellous steps. it is frequently found here.
253
We
are
left to
the irresistible conclusion that
the
myths
of Krishna's birth
and youth are not only pre-Christian
but pre-historic. There is.
EXPLANATION OF THE KEISHNA MYTH
really unanswerable. And 10 this trait is found in the story of Sakya.
i. the God of Love. their descent
:
Buddha and Krishna
. p. 326. The exploit against the elephant
the births of
their early life of pleasure."
in large part a variant
Again. 297
Id. 315. Bigandet.B.
Senart. takes three miraculous strides. and Jesus..
See above. 319.
similarly
common
to the three personages. 312. did
(a)
that Buddhism.
.
1
We
have now seen reason enough
3 6
to
Essai." The prodigy of the divine infant speaking immediately after birth occurs in the Buddha myth as in those of Krishna. p. of the Fo-Sho-Hzng-Tsan-King.
and Beal's
trans. which include such items as the breaking of Siva's bow
by Kama. the genealogy of
of
Buddha
is
Kama. of Kansa's by Krishna. that the Krishnaite form of a given story is by far the more natural.
we should have
to
hold either
tianity. Essai.
It is needless here to give at length the details. or (b) that Krishnaism borrowed from Buddhism legends which the Buddhists had already assimilated from the Christians. Senart's demonstration of the derivation of a large part of the Buddha myth from that of Krishna. p. in fine.
3. as in the Christian parallels.
evidently " belonged to the Krishnaite legend before being introduced
into the life of
Sakya [Buddha]
on that
:
it
is
infinitely better
motived in
the former than in the latter.3-A).
4
3
the parallel between
5
and 6 from "enemies of the Gods.

though doubtless he would have given Wilson's passage fully Its effect is so different if he had been able to lay his hands on it. he continues:
of his earlier
" Their Christian origin is as little to be
One
1
doubted as the conclusion [Ind. in the words of Wilson (quoted in Mrs. which we have discussed in
Krishnaism
the foregoing sections.
who
cited
. Up. and in particular the vital importance of faith. my Abh.'" 2
Weber quotes Wilson at secondhand from an Indian magazine. Krishnaite
and
Christist Doctrine. that the divisions of the Christian Church originated the doctrine of the Hindus.
p. were directly [sic] influenced by
Indian sects
favour. or.
:
"It is impossible to avoid noticing in the double doctrine of the Gita an analogy to the double doctrine of the early Christian Church and the same question as to the merits of contemplative and practical religion engendered many differences of opinion and observance in the first ages of Christianity. was influenced by the acquaintance made by the Indians with the corresponding teaching of Christianity'. 434 cp. after enumerating the alleged myth-imitations.
423] that
'
in general the later exclusively monotheistic tendency
who worship a particular personal God. therefore. it is not at all unlikely that the speculations of those schools were reagitated and remodified in the general stimulus which Chrisand it is not tianity seems to have given to metaphysical inquiry
. but she states fairly enough that Wilson only " hints " his opinion and this the Professor overlooks. Speir. p. it is true. p. 165. in particular its insistence on the need and value of " faith.
1
Above.
of the
i." and its monotheistic view of its deity. pray for his and trust in him (bhakti and sraddlw).
statements of this opinion has been already cited. at the same time.
: '
the diffusion of the Christian religion.
Studien. She made the blunder of writing " directly " for " indirectly ".
it
will be seen. ilber die Rdmdtdp. it would not follow.—
254
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
It
decide that such theories are untenable. and there is no reason to doubt that in all essential respects the Hindu schools arc of a much earlier date . 277.
§
19.
remains to investigate
the theory of doctrinal as distinct from mythical assimilations. 360). that the remodelling of the ancient Hindu systems into popular forms. maintained it to the last. 339
. These discussions. and had long pervaded the East before the commencement of our era .
.
Mrs. In the "Birth Festival" and he has treatise.
borrowed
from
Christianity
certain of its leading doctrines. when quoted in full that it is well so to transcribe it
Here.
Professor
in addition to the mythical narratives
Weber has more than once advanced the opinion that. Speir's Life in Ancient India. pp.
2
Treatise cited. grew out of the admixture of the Platonic philosophical notions with the lessons of Christianity.

and the thought of him in his mind.
it
1
will be seen. See also Works. 368. 31=Works. Before we come to a decision on the point at issue. with certain sectarial marks. ii. but the question is a very dubious one. if in any. Natural Religion."
This. or any other favourite deity. not only obviates the necessity of virtue. vol. if he spends hours in the simple reiteration of his name or names if he die with the word Hari or Rama or Krishna on his lips. note). In a later letter to Dr. though he there says that the doctrine of the efficacy of bhakti seems to have been an important innovation upon the primitive system of the Hindu religion " (Art. 214-215. And Prof. Philos. in review of Schlegel's trans. and which Weber holds to be without doubt entirely In his Oxford lectures Wilson declares that in the derived thence.
. ." Wilson. 1883. were indirectly influenced by the diffusion of the Christian religion. his breast. Orient. Oxford. but it sanctifies vice. Eng.
what it was exactly that Wilson understood by the doctrine of which he thought might possibly be indirectly influenced by Christianity. iv. It is well to keep in mind that while Krishnaism. Wilson. pp.
Lectures on the Beligious Practices of tlie Hindus. i. 1840. He gives a certificate of merit to Sivaism as against Krishnaism. if he brands his skin permanently with them with a hot iron stamp if he is constantly chanting hymns in honour of Vishnu or. Thus the Brahman reformer Chaitanya. of Anc. Rev. of the Bhagavat Gita. makes a positive assertion where Wilson expressed himself very cautiously and doubtfully. and
inaccurate quotation of his words. iii. p. v. 24. and does
not meet (having apparently not seen) Wilson's propositions as to the antiquity in India of the general pantheistic doctrine which 2 prevailed in the East before Christianity. too (Hist. pp. what is equally efficacious. March. Conduct is wholly immaterial. 209. 1899. who flourished in the sixteenth century. 75.
2
''Wilson's theory that the bhakti of the later Hindu sects is essentially a Christian doctrine. 79). Cp. of Ind. Muir might well write " I am not aware in which. Neve. made "discipline of the intellect and a surrender of all to Krishna" one of his main positions. it may be well
to see
faith. if he paints his face. in Indian Antiquary.
3
Two
.
: ' '
vol. I find no express statement to this effect in his Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus. India. he speaks yet again of
1
Calcutta. Max Miiller. his arms. H. without bringing forward any important new facts. and whose movement still flourishes in Bengal. Puranas the doctrine of the sufficiency of faith is
" carried to the very utmost abuse of which it is susceptible. It is highly desirable that this subject should be
further investigated. or. Quart. Garbe notes how in the Bhagavat Gita Krishna is made to utter the highest practical ethic. Weber. it has similarly been turned to higher ends. reprinted in Works. It matters not how atrocious a sinner a man may be. had no such opinion. 156-7. of his writings Professor Wilson may have expressed the opinion that the Indian tenet of bnakti is essentially Christian. 100. Lit. which is better. p. 1875. like Christism. p. he is certain of
. he may have lived a monster of iniquity. as we have seen.'
KRISHNAITE AND CHRISTIST DOCTRINE
255
impossible that the attempts to model the ancient systems into a popular form. by engrafting on them in particular the vital importance of faith. can be turned to the account of lawlessness. declares that "it is the worship of Krishna that has chiefly countenanced and furthered the moral degradation of the Hindus. ed. Les epoques litteraires de VInde. p. Weber's misunderstanding as to Wilson's view on bhakti seems to have become a fixed idea." 3
H. John Muir on the subject. p." The Professor does not appear to bring this thesis into connection with his argument that Krishnaism has borrowed doctrines as well as myths from Christianity.
heaven. Entire dependency on Krishna. tr.
Weber. vol. is a very different deliverance
is
and also from what Wilson
made
to say in the incomplete
from Weber's. Dr.

and to have come as far as the Indies." This startling proposition. Pantsenus. then following the sense. pp. which is nominally supported by citation of the general opinions of Weber. and of Chrysostom as to an " Indian translation of the fourth Gospel. and of which he pieced into his work many passages (if not textually. whose position is that " the author [of the Gita] knew the New Testament writings. and the Persians. Hist.
2
1873. Nor is it incumbent on rationalists to object that
such a derivation brings small credit to Chris-
tianity.). The statements in question are those of Eusebius as " to the mission of Pantaenus. had preached. and advanced even as far as India.
October. and had left them the Gospel of Matthew in the Hebrew. (The argumentative appendix has been translated in part in the Indian Antiquary. vol. v. to whom Bartholomew. F. 2. however. and the Egyptians. with the New Testament. Now.—
256
It
. so far as he thought fit. And the report is that he there found his own arrival anticipated by some who were acquainted with the Gospel of Matthew. The narrative of Eusebius is as follows
1
:
salvation by faith
"
The
tradition
is. was finally at the head of the Alexandrian school. a German translator of the Gita. iibersetzt und erlautert von Dr. he used. Lorinser. that he was constituted a herald of the Gospel to the nations of the East. which was also preserved until this time. and the Indians. there are decisive reasons for rejecting such a view. to increase
divine word.
that this philosopher was then in great eminence
He is said to have displayed such ardour and so zealous a disposition respecting the divine word. and possibly of the Joannine epistles. reveals that the doctrine of
is already fully laid down in the Bhagavat Gita and the Christian hypothesis involves the conclusion that that famous document is a patchwork of Christian teaching. F. rests deductively on early Christian statements as to the introduction of Christianity into " India. which. and the Ethiopians.
.
1 Die Bhagavad-Gita. i.
An
impartial inquiry.) Eccles. in Europe. 10 (Bohn trans. 1869. 272." 2
their inspired zeal after the apostolic example.
Of
these
The statement
of Chrysostom. 283-296. p. and that that is of all Christian doctrines the one which may with most plausibility be held to have originated.
who were
ardently striving to employ
and build up the Pantcenus is said to have been one. There were even
there yet
many
evangelists of the word. though these facts have hitherto not been observed or pointed out by anyone. Breslau. after many praiseworthy deeds. Its most confident and systematic expositor is Dr." and inductively on a number of parallels between the New Testament and the Gita. one of the apostles. is that " the Syrians. and adapting it to his Indian fashion of composition). again. Lorinser.
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
cannot be denied that
all this
bears a very close resemblance
to the practical applications of the Christian doctrine of faith in
European history.

quoted by Mosheim. Holstein. Georg. There the reference is clearly not to India proper. to Ethiopia. 5 Catal. Adv. were taught. the teacher of Clemens Alexandrinus. to east Persia and south Arabia. Hist. 40. which was con-
—
J
stantly called India
1
by the ancients.) Cp. Pantsenus.C. who in Homer's time. Lucan. ii. used as loosely by the ancients as that of India and the evidence of Jerome further varies from that of Eusebius in 5 stating that the " Indians " had sent delegates to Alexandria asking for a Christian instructor. p. Lorinser seems entirely unaware that the names " India " and " Indians " were normally applied by ancient writers to countries and peoples other 3 than India proper. Egypt. Ser. The Indian translation of which he had knowledge must have existed at least a hundred years earlier. 282.
1. but it has been made the occasion of much dispute as to what country it was that Pantsenus visited. accordingly surmised that the mission was to Ethiopia or Abyssinia. iii. Diodor. Gr. as Ethiopians. ffln. cited by Mosheim. Yet not only is this general fact notorious. in S. Virgil and others signify by India just the East. pp. in short. are both heard of otherwise and still in existence. ii. though bar-
barians.
rationally arguing
lix. Apoc.
ii (i) 2. Supplic. to all dark-skinned peoples.'
and innumerable other
The most surprising point about this argument is that Dr. T." (Von Bohlen. i. Ecclesiast. and Libya. disappears when we consider that all the translations here specified by name. In any case. 172.
in Cap. That Indian Brahmans should have sent such a deputation is simply inconceivable. 29. Mosheim wrote that most of the learned had held it to be Eastern India proper an. x. ii. Chrysostom would not here have explicitly named the Indians if he had not had positive knowledge of an existing translation in their language." 4 Epist. c. Chrysostom died in the year 407 A."
the addition
peoples. 268-9. and that Bishop Demetrius sent Pantsenus. Gentes. however.
i. :
3 "
S
.
Mosheim. Cod.
. Arnobius. ix. Joann. 669. 12 and Lucan. 9-10. Das alte Indien.
After the time of Herodotus the name India was applied to all lands in the southwestern world. 23. Lorinser
comments
:
" It
may
be argued that the significance of this testimony
'
is
weakened by
This apprehension. had already brought this knowledge to the West. du Manichceisme. 116. Von Bohlen states that the name India first appears among the Greeks in ^Eschylus. the words running " I hear that the wandering Indians ride on pannier packed camels fleet as steeds. of whom we know that he had himself been in India. 32).
v.—
KRISHNAITE AND CHRISTIST DOCTRINE
and innumerable
into their
(pvpia)
257
other peoples. Horn. Scriptor. 404. citing Virg. in their land bordering on the Ethiopians. 31."
1
On
this latter record Dr. however. with the single exception of the Indian. Work cited. and others. i. as he was sent apud Brachma?ias. 517. 705. Fabric. N. The origin of this translation may thus possibly go back to the 2 first or second century after Christ.
2
Comm. opinion countenanced by the statement of Jerome that Pantasnus A But the name Brachman was. 36.
by
his
[John's]
teachings translated
own
language. further pointed out. were allotted the whole horizon (Lichtrand) of the South. Apparently. even orthodox opinion finally coming round to the view that it was not India at all. 83. Vales. 129. viii. Beausobre. but most commonly it stands for southern Arabia and Ethiopia. to be philosophers.
(Migne. for the knowledge of it to reach him in those days.

!
—
258
that the
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
Hebrew translation of Matthew must have been used by Jews. Lorinser's argument.
fcl
much
:'. a
"
the fact that even Tertullian. like so many other Hindu writings. 206-7." In any case. even if
have
1
the " Indies" of Eusebius had meant India.
Dr. in a piquant passage. because he held that to
been the scene of Bartholomew's " Indian " labours. pp. Hterete*. Barthol.j. c. in
Mem
Mardock't note admissions of v. which he located in Arabia Felix.
it
a
it
testimony of Chrysostom.
formerly dated
great epic. it
'. Cappadocia. Asia.Ll. the testimony
face of
is
on the
mere tradition. re can be no doubt that.
Dr. as we shall see when we examine his " parallel passages. so long as we recognize the absurdity of the view that the locality was India.
I
..
it
Ostensibly an episode in the
bharata.
i
probably only wont to Yemen. nor yet Jerome. decided that the delegates came from a Jewish-Christian colony. The same arguments.
now
is all
only
known
to the
Brahmans.
Adv. to begin with.
may
say at
Commentaries on the Affair* of
Tn Vit. Indeed. i.
him. note (citing Tille60-1).
/>. Medes." He admits. 110). dispose of the unquestionably alluded to some of
Asia or
Africa
many
it
peoples of Western
If further disproof of
lies in
commonly dubbed
Indians. jther in one of those spoken by the people or in Sanskrit. neither Chrysostom nor Eusebius.
. and Pamphylia " the whole Pentecostal series does not say a word of India . that it is impossible to say in what dialect the translation was made. 7. Pontus. and of Qieseler {Compendium. cast in the form of
ited as
a dialogue which
is
.
(
the
//
*
Eeelee.
stands out from the rest of that
taking place between Krishna
I
huge poem
a-.
8
Advertut
toiii Judaot. Lorinser's initial assumption be
needed.* and that Irenaeus in his allegation as to the spread of the faith does not do so either. p.
the
who
need hardly be said. involved in the difficulty of fixing the time of the com\ion of the Gita from either internal or external evidence. It matters little which view we take here.cally
too early. pretends that the "Indians" had a complete translation of the books of the New Testament and nothing less than a complete translation in an Indian tongue is wanted for Dr. in his sufficiently
eping catalogue of the nations that had embraced Christianity
list which includes Parthians. parti c.
theological treatise.
I
note*). Elamites. Compare the Quellen$ammlimo 1840. In the original.
and the warrior Arjuna on the eve
1
of a great battle. Lorinser observes that
it
one
(gleichgiiltig) to
No
doubt
An argument for the derivation of the teaching in the Bhagavat Gita from the New Testament has the advantage. then as
—
—
. Armenia. Phrygia. Heealso Hittory.
who
8. jo. 2 Cent. and the people of Mesopotamia.
c.

xii. 5. 6. and who argues persuasively for its antiquity.ix. 3 P. it remains to be seen whether he succeeds any better in his argument from resemblance. K.
. Lorinser's thesis is thus far unhampered by any effective objections
Where
that period begins. even of the gospels.—
KEISHNAITE AND CHRISTIST DOCTRINE
259
once that I cannot regard it as having been composed at the same time as the portion of the poem in which it is inserted. and an "Indian" translation of part of the New Testament. Telang took up a stronger position but even there he declared: "I own I find it quite impossible to satisfy myself that there are more than a very few facts in the history of Sanskrit literature which we are entitled to speak of as historically certain'" (p. -22. well worthy the attention of those who are disposed for a further investigation of the subject. The earlier essay. Dr. however. not to speak of the entire canon. vii). It is morally certain that no such translation existed. ^Gita. 2. Mr. Telang's contention that the Gita belongs to a period before that of the system1
—
makers indeed. but pantheistically treated. pp. 1SS2. and another to regard it as a portion of the " original Mahabharata. viii. His argument from history being thus annihilated. however. which Dr. ' between Krishna's declarations on the one hand that to him " none is hateful.
it is still impossible to say with any approach to precision and. 2 Introd. the able Hindu scholar who has translated it for the " Sacred Books of the East " series. very doubtfully to the view that it is a genuine "portion 2 Where he is diffident the rest of us of the original Mahabharata. It must. as Weber remarks. it really owes nothing to Christianity. and we have seen how it breaks down in respect of the patristic testimony to the existence of an "Indian" mission. T." must be disbelieving. 1S75). Lorinser strangely seems to think is covered by his quotation from Chrysostom. In the introduction to bis earlier translation of the Bhagavat Gita in blank verse (Bombay. the flat contradiction. Lorinser's arguments.
. Mr. to which he alludes.
. 5 Id. however." It is not easily to be believed that a piece of writing in which Krishna is not only represented as the Supreme Deity." and on the other hand that a whole
4
this even raises a doubt as to the good are " dear " to him homogeneity of the document. even if the Gita were composed within the Christian era. It is not difficult to show that.
from Hindu chronology. Telang. confessedly holds "not without diffidence" indeed. But it is one thing to reckon the Gita ancient. contains a very able and complete refutation of Dr. It must surely belong to the
—
series of doers of
period of his
Brahmanic acceptance. can belong originally to the epic in which he is a heroic demigod. stand criticism on its own merits. There is much force in Mr. 12.
The derivation
of
the
Gita's
teaching
from
the
Christian
1 Vol.
none dear. in the first Christian centuries.
.

8.
.
.
have passed Arjuna and
!
know whence
.
not whence I came.
know
you
also.
unto you that every one that woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
they are one's
speaks]
birth
. I have made this quite impartially. is
iii. and picking out the remainder because of their comparative importance. that
I should bear witness
unto the truth.
:
God. v. 28.. 37.
knowand
Titus
as regards all knowledge. the sense coincides
teristic
expression of the
. from the beginning.
I
know them
all. Because
. 12. Thou art not yet fifty years old.
Later
Id.
iii.e. point. The context clearly ought to be kept in view.
I
stand that
you declared
:
[Krishna answers] I through many births.
and second admonition] refuse
ing that such a one 10-11. being self -condemned. 57.
sinneth.—
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
Dr.
1
New
{First Order. He divides
:
them
into three classes
(l)
passages in which. Telang ally given in brackets parts of a passage elided by Dr.
1 and I have occasionI have followed throughout the prose translation of Mr. for
the
To
this
this
end have
I
I
been born. Lorinser claims to prove by about one hundred
in
260
Scriptures
parallel passages.
and ruined. know them to
be devoid of
32.
New
worse light
:
Bhagavat Gita.
(2) passages in which a characTestament appears with a different and (3) passages in which expression and meaning application The nature of these " coincidences " can be best set forth coincide.
Every sense has
its
affections
and
to
aversions towards
for
its objects fixed. taking the majority consecutively as they happen to stand at the heads of the sections. with differences of
. 4.)
I say
Testament. Lorinser as not bearing on his.
but you.
How
then shall I underfirst?
The Jews therefore said unto him.
The devil sinneth John xviii. restraining
the organs of action.
Id.
iii. that ye should obey the lusts thereof Romans vi.
But those who carp at my opinion and do not act upon it. It would be easy to make a selection which would put Dr.
One should not become
them.
subject
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.
I
came. and whither
the Jews]
I go
but ye
[i.
The deluded man who.
I
iv. 14.
selected
from nearly
which Gita sentences are matched by texts all the New Testament books. viii.
destruction of evil-doers
and for the and the estab-
end
am
come
into the world.
6.
opponents. do not
know
them.
its
A man
that
is
heretical [after a first
.
is
the
mind
etc. continues to think
in his
looketh on a
mind about
objects of sense.
is
discrimination. or whither I go. 1 John iii.
[Arjuna
[Krishna's]
your
the
the birth of
(this)
sun
is prior. Matt.
terror of your foes. by a simple selection of about a score of them. 7.
deluded
perverted. 8.
iv. and to
protection of the good.
of the flesh is
enmity against
34. Lorinser's case in a much
expression.
am
born age after age. and hast thou seen Abraham ? John viii.
called a hypocrite.
ment
of piety.
iii.

March. let and take up his cross. Rom. [the word] certainly signifies the place reached by going. is ruined. John Muir. 1877.
yoke is easy. 2. 6. 17.
Lorinser]
iii.
[Compare
~\
actions. and Living One behold I am alive for evermore.
vii. rejected Dr.)
To the man
above
all
vii. and Matt.
I
am
not manifest to
all..
xiv.' 'refuge.
John
v.
is
and whose
is
full
of
mis-
shall be saved
shall be
but he that disbelieveth
givings.
John
(Third Order.
5.
(Second Order. 80. the grandsire.
none dear. and he is dear to me. 21. John me
xiv.
:
[. he it is that] loveth and I will love him. 18.
17-18. ii.
der
Weg"
is
in
am
the
way
No
one cometh
Lorinser 1 ] than which there
vii.
40. and the inexhaustible seed] I cause
.
I should be ruining these
23-4. and I have the keys of death and of Hades]
I
the
life
.
nothing
unto the Father.. the receptacle. divine knowledge] is to be apprehended directly.'
: '
'resort.
released
["
from
blasphemed. iv). 18.
I
Titus
ii.e.
and I work. Lorinser's translation of "way" and anticipates Telang's "Here. .
condemned. the
mother. and sendeth rain
1 Dr.'" Indian Antiquary.
hateful.
Rev. the creator.
is
261
baptized]
ignorant and devoid of
self
iv. 24.
of
He [that hath my commandments. son of Pritha !] If I did not perform actions.
seen
God
at
any time. 26.
any time not engage without sloth in action [men would follow in my path from all sides. 1875 (vol. the lord.
knowledge I am dear things.
To me none
ix. and keepeth them.
i. 16. the means of sanctification.
people. Tijdschr. 6.
My
light. the residence. xvi. xi. 30. theasylum. and is easy to
practise. Mark xvi.
hath seen. the supervisor. p. never see death] that the word of God be not
. than whom there is no higher authority in this country. Saman. the thing to be known.
am
. n.
For should
My
Father worketh even until now. nor can
It [i. in Theolog.
Whom
1
no Tim. the Rik. 51.
ix.
No man hath
John
see.
me
higher. p.
KEISHNAITE AND CHBISTIST DOCTEINE
He who
faith. present. and Yajus also] the goal [the sustainer. Professor Tiele.
evil
i.
Even
those
men who
mine
are
[" die
always act on
this opinion of
full of faith.4s
against
passage in brackets]
come after me. 75.
his sun to rise
He maketh
[on the
and the good]. these worlds would be destroyed.
and
"
all
without carping
in
lastern nicht
If a man keep my word [he shall John viii.
the
.
31. 11.
18. the friend] the source and that in which it merges [the support.
is
He
that believeth [and
. as in many other passages of the Indian writings. and future). and no one cometh unto the John xiv. but by me. the syllable Om ( = past.
iii.
I at
.
To the same
effect.
way [and the truth. Father but by me] "I am the first and the last [and the and I was dead.
.
man
vi. 17. There is no respect of persons with God.
my
burden
I am
[the father of this universe.
any man would him deny himself
If
Matt.
I should be the cause of
caste
inter-
minglings.
the goal
the preceding sentences of the epistle. 29.

and we thine. and
unto him.]
ix. iv.
. 19.
:
'
:
:
'
:
'
.
the beginning.
I
ix.
I
x. so strained and farfetched are they and that on the other they are discounted by quite
could be
. and also death I. " They who devoutly worship me are in me. 8. 288-9) is a long sentence declaring that the contemner of right conduct is " deserted by God " and in the end " is utterly destroyed. however he
may
be
eateth me. are in you as if fighting in coats of mail And in viii. PLATO. Amor. 33).
so]
he that
lives in
me. 20. 36.
Rom. and the ruler is always to be preferred to the servant. O Arjuna am that which is and
!
that
which
ing in
one]
.
things.) 2 Dr.
.
is
is willing. 23. which serves. v (Jowett's tr. 28.
parallels. and
. Lorinser also brackets the Christian " I am the Alpha and the Omega " with the Gita's " I am A among the letters" (x. Telang points out (B. SENECA. he also shall live because of
living". 29. thou art ours. and I send forth
[I
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
and stop showers.
57. 8 We. and the middle
also of all beings. 47. G.
The unruly passions of anger and desire are contrary and inimical CICERO. B.
I
John
in
vi. nor can she be preserved.' " (.
as striking parallels between
pagan writings.
[That devotee
all
who worships me
abidis
[As the living Father sent me. p. Lorinser
is
that on the one hand the parallels are very frequently such as
made by the dozen between bodies of literature which have unquestionably never been brought in contact.—
'
. Laws. it is said O Indra. But Mr. which rules. 32. in verse. Var.
:
[In B. 5. and in viii.. For of him.
[on the just and the unjust]
v. he hath no other kinship '.
vi.
17. Muir " Tn the Rig Veda some passages occur which in part convey the same or a similar Thus in ii. and I
live
beings. 142. and they in
be
perfected
me
[that
they
may
into
one]
am am
the origin of
all. 45. iv of the Laws (Jowett. Introd. are
all
on through me. and I in them.
. Though you may take care of her body. xiv. In every man there are two parts the better and superior part. 18. xlviii.
above
:
He who means to do an injury has already done it. 10. 4 xliii.
x. 298).
x
them. p. 30. Ant. O Agni. the [coerced wife's] mind
adulterous.
and the end
The first comment that must occur to every instructed reader on perusing these and the other " parallels " advanced by Dr. Tusculan Questions. and his family and city with him. v.
3. and through him. Hist. in
New Testament texts and pre-Christian Take a few of the more notable of these latter the order in which the New Testament passages occur
i.
and
all
moves
John xvii. Why should not the Brahmans have studied the prophets ?
1
writes
idea.
to the
As to the passage.
lam the first and the last. as cited.
Matt.
is
not. 12. O Gods. we sages have been in thee '."]
reason. 1 This worshipper.'
Rev." Dr. unless she
iii.
Not only is he who does evil bad. the worshipper says to Indra. trans. 12. and in x. Note that the Deity is already "the first and the last" in Isaiah (so-called)— xli.
OVID. 81. and I too in
them. .
4.
me. hath been in thee O son of strength. De Ira.Bid.
am immortality. Iv) that the Indian writer merely takes A as the principal letter.
But those who worship me with devotion (dwell) in me.
262
beat.
i. v. holding that all
because of the Father
. 80. iELIAN. 5. 11.
2
xi. but also he who thinks to do evil. and the worse and inferior part.

2 Latvs." thus stated: "Let no man do to another that which would be repugnant to himself this is the sum of righteousness. 52-5.
VIRGIL.
(Jowett.
Such
parallels as these.
SENECA. the rest is according tO inclination. but only to the good. Hymn It is enough for God
xlvii. will be found a number of extracts from the Mahabharata and other Sanskrit works. on the Christian theory. Four hundred years before Jesus. to be a means of oblivion of and a rest from cares. Dissert. OVID. Zeus
Zeus
:
shall be. Jesus and his followers were indebted to pagans
for very
much
of their ethical teaching
—as indeed
it
the compilers of
the gospels were unquestionably indebted for a good theological ideas.
to
iv. I repeat.
i. PLATO. 70. v. and the producer of things in whatever way they happen in the world. haws. HESIOD.
God comes
Epist. 73.
.
men
nay.
CALLIMACHUS.
any
extent from the Greek and Latin classics alone
while the Egyptian
is it
"Book
to
of the
Dead"
furnishes
of
many
more. must have been borrowed from the Gospels. v.KRISHNAITE AND CHRISTIST DOCTRINE
I [Cyrus]
263
am
persuaded I
i. 50.
all
CICERO.
Herodotus. Agam. which. 16796). of Jove he cherishes the earth my songs are his care.
to
Apollo. 60. v.
ills. Eclogues. PHILEMON. expect no reciprocity"? (iii. The Gods look with just eyes on mortals. 1270) we have: "The Gods regard with delight the man who when struck does not strike again.
Lorinser's principle. himself unseen. not to speak of the narrative myths. when they promote the welfare of others. EPICTETUS. Plato declared that it was very difficult
all
religious
systems that
2
rise
1 In Dr. iv (Jowett's tr. Thus in the epic (v. cause of
all. in PAUSANIAS.
Laios. De Natura Deorum. PSEUD. middle.
that he be worshipped and loved.
All things are full
all What can be done by mortals without 1461-5 (1484-8). what
is closer. and end. he comes into them. for he is like to him.
:
. 14. i. xcv. Theogony. The temperate man is the friend of God.
Cp.
am
born by divine providence to undertake this
work. B.)
Zeus was. of
that
is.
Epist.
Zeus?
^SCHYLUS. 289). B. God is verily the saviour of all. SENECA.
The Muses whom Mnemosyne bare.
126. iii. It is plainly as native to the Indian poet as is the "Golden Rule.
11." If this be Christian (it is at least as old as Plato see the Gorgias) whence came this: "The good. Beligious and Moral Sentiments freely translated from Indian Writers (published in Thomas Scott's series)." But most Christians are kept carefully in ignorance of the fact that the " Golden Rule " is common to all literatures. Frag.
research or reflection
sions
in
is
many
of their
needed to make
clear
But no great that certain common1
places of ethics as well as of theology are equally inevitable conclu-
above savagery. holding in his hand the beginning. John Muir's valuable little pamphlet.
God is within you. x. Not to every one doth Apollo manifest himself.
(
.
PLATO. 12. and was an ancient saw in China long before the Christian era. Metamorph. 9. 14. Pythagoras thought that there was a soul mingling with and pervading
things.
doer of
. seeing all things.ARISTOTLE.
all
God. De Mundo. 288.
Ancient Song. God.
is. xiii. 18. 6.
But
worth while
heap up the disproof
a thesis so manifestly idle?
On
Dr.
Zeus. could be multiplied to
.

He further implies that the Hindu had read the book of Wisdom in the Septuagint
1
2 It
I
. inconsistent) pantheism while Christianity was but vaguely absorbent The law of religious development in of the pantheism around it. that the Hindu system is immeasurably removed from the Christian in its whole theosophical inspiration. of the second gospel and the earlier form of the first. might be quite independent of borrowing ? If all this were not clear enough a priori. p. Ant. 82) that he thinks the author of the Gita may have profited by a study of the Christian fathers. appears from Dr. like the Christism this regard is simple. including some which lay at the root of Buddhism as that of the religious yoke being easy though utterly rejecting the Christian doctrine of atonement and blood sacrifice
Plato's help to reach the
. A crude and naif system. while assimilating absolutely choosing to borrow nothing of distinctively Christian doctrine from the Christians their expressions of doctrines which had been in the world for centuries. and its mass of myth and ritual. as Clemens Alexandrinus and Athenagoras. borrows inevitably from the more highly evolved systems with which it comes socially in contact. as Christianity supplanted Europe. pantheistic and other.
in turn of
those of northern
Cited by Dr. was Christianity capable of dominating Hindu Brahmanism. But not even at the height of its influence. as well as from the general drift of its exposition.
Jew needed
—
—
and the Christian claim as a whole.264
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
:
for the rich to be good
does anyone believe that any thoughtful
same notion ? Nay. Such a position is possible 2 Even were Brahmanic India in only to a mesmerized believer. much less in the second century. with its ingrained pantheism. Christian or post-Christian. doctrinal communication with Christendom at the time in question.
dominating primitive systems. pointed out to Dr. Lorinser's notes (p. does anyone even doubt that such a close coincidence as the comparison of the human soul to a team of horses in the Katha Upanishad and 1 Plato's Phaedrus. it lies on the face of the case that the Brahmanic theosophy was already elaborated out of all comIt had reached systematic (even if parison with the Christian. Lorinser by Professor Windisch. it is unmixedly Hindu. as last cited. it is sufficiently obvious from the context of most of the passages quoted from the Gita. Muir in Ind. sanctioned in whole or in part by Be the Gita prerote-learnt lore of the most venerable antiquity. 78. absorbing myth and mystery and dogma It then becomes capable till it becomes as sophisticated as they. which we have seen it was not. We are asked to believe that Brahmans expounding a highly developed pantheism went assiduously to the (unattainable) New Testament for the wording of a number of their propositions.

In pp.
11. development under Christism in a decaying society. so demoralizing in practice
.
India of a doctrine so profoundly immoral in principle.
that faith in divine protection is expressed in the early
documents
of
other Eastern systems
sufficiency of devotion. 14. Lorinser considers (p.
Psalms.
my
his friendship
and guidance are said
to be sweet
.
1. 103
ff. in which the spirit of subjection had eaten away the better part of all self-reliance
.
never occurred to either theorist to ask how the doctrine of salvation by faith came to be developed in Christism. vii.
Zeph. to say that the principle is already clearly indicated in the prophets
similar social conditions elsewhere.
noted by Plato (to It found special inevitable phase of all systems at some stages.
7-10. which often occur in the Bhagavat Gita. xxvi. do not convey original Indian conceptions. and affectionate regard for. the germs of
For though we cannot trace
its full
lie
the stages by which
the doctrine of faith reached
it
development. is name no other).
and that the tendency to believe in the alland the needlessness of personal merit.
Take
the testimony of Dr.
I
. participial and verbal) is found even in the hymns of the Rig Veda in the sense of belief in the existence and action
of a deity.
iii. together with a great variety of other expressions in which the worshipper's trust in. Jer. Isa.
first
we do know
that
in the Veda. but sraddhd (together with its cognates.
but.
John Muir
:
"Dr.
credit to Christianity
if
it
were responsible for the introduction into. the historic facts discountenance
all
the hypothesis.
*
265
When
it is
thus seen that
all
the arguments to prove imitation
of
the Gospels in the Bhagavat Gita are baseless. but are borrowed from Christianity.
of
Original Sanskrit Texts a number of passages are cited and translated in which the word occurs. The very proposition betrays some It has of the " judicial blindness " laboured under by Dr. and is in some degree really an
.
vassim. the God Indra are indicated.
Nahuro
i. 3. as
it
happens.
if
not also of devotion to his service.
he
is
spoken of as a father
1
Micah
iii.
and just such a state of things can be seen to have existed in many It would be small parts of India from the earliest historic times.
12. He is called a friend and brother
the fifth volume of
.—
KEISHNAITE AND CHRISTIST DOCTRINE
4.
7.
. at least. Lorinser. it is hardly necessary to deal at any length with Weber's favourite general
argument as to the necessary derivation of the doctrines of bhakti and sraddhd from Christianity. This may or may not be true of bhakti . or whether the same
religious tendencies could not give rise to the
same phenomenon
in
cannot burden this already over-lengthy treatise with an examination of the development of the It must suffice Christian doctrine of faith from the Judaic germs. 56) that two Sanskrit words denoting faithful and reverential religious devotion (sraddhd and bhakti).

in verse.
the verdict of Professor
Max
Miiller
—
:
:
clearly
Here then we have in the Upanishads the idea of bhakti or devotion pronounced and as no one has yet ventured to put the date of the Svetasoatara Upanishad later than the beginning of our era.
423). then will they shine forth indeed.
—
demonstrated. it is clearly impossible to admit here the idea of an early Christian influence.
p. 260." He adds
in this connection certainly weighty. 84-85. who feels the highest devotion {bhakti) for God. xv. Telang.
" even
if
chronologically
Christian influences were possible" at the date of the Gita."
"It
is
strange that these
1 Indian Antiquary.
cites other
Vedie
" The opinion that not only did Christian legends find an entry among the Indian sects of later times. and has no hesitation about pronouncing Krishna a historical personage. 2 Trans. as cited. 1876. 35)
— seems to me unjustified. 66. '
Uefde)." 8
Similarly Professor Richard Garbe.
These remarks are endorsed by Mr. iv. (Chicago.
:. 2nd ed.' yet this has already in very old sources the sense of consecration' (toewijding).
the
Professor
observes that. 5 Mtiller's trans.
viytlie et
i. 99. because
4
its earliest
appearance
is
in a
time for which
Christian influences in India have not yet been
Noting that the principle of love and intimacy with the Gods is found in the very earliest 5 portions of the Rig Veda. but that even peculiarly Christian ideas
is to say. trans. 4 The Philosophy of Ancient India."
.
finally. 1877. p. Art. and as being both a father and a mother he is the helper of the poor."
Take. pp. Also in Dr. in Sacred Books of the East. ments. " cannot adopt the opinion that the bhakti was transplanted from a foreign land into the exceedingly
fertile soil of
Indian thought.
' '
'
Already in the Rig Veda there is frequent mention of faith (sraddhd) in the same sense as is given to that word later and although we cannot speak actually of bhakti."
1
. in Theologische Tijdschrift. bhakti. who 2 passages and again by Tiele
: . Muir's pamphlet Beligious and Moral Senti81. Eng. who accepts uncritically enough Weber's theorem of the derivation of parts of the Krishna myth from the Gospels. then they will shine forth. p. p. he cites from the Svetasoatara Upanishad a pantheistic passage which concludes " If these truths have been told to a high-minded man.
and
after
him by Neve
(Des tUments etrangers
du
du
culte de Krichna. vi. introd. which there as yet only means division or apportionment.
G
Natural Religion. lxxxii. 'fidelity' (tromv). Paris. that the Hindus acquired from the Christians their high veneration for piety or devotion.—
266
—
CHKIST AND KRISHNA
and the most fatherly of fathers. G. that
—
Studien. sraddhd as is contended by Weber {Indisclie
exercised an influence on their dogmatics or philosophy. Christ us en Krishna. and faith. "there
is
no necessity
for admitting
them. 1899). 'love resting on belief (op geloof rustende
. 1850. and has a love for mortals. and as for God so for his Guru. p.
. of B.
"
Further.

Paris. 97."
. though he admitted that it was not
without weighty reasons that
many
2
ecclesiastical historians
held
1
Id. as cited. or " White Island.400. It only remains to say that in the rejection of 2 and Weber's own theory we are fully countenanced by M.
Weber. scholar.
we have
already seen that the idea of the
God
entering into his worshippers existed in the
Veda
(as
it
notoriously
did among the ancient Greeks and has done among primitives everywhere).. he thought it just possible that there had been an apostolic mission to India. 70). was a historic testimony. Lorinser to be of and the one rebuttal reinforces the other."
For the
rest. " because the tradition that the Apostle Thomas preached the Gospel in that country is an old one.
This. ii. Lorinser. had there found a
race of perfect men. had visited the Svetadvipa. Christian derivation
. i.
. pp. p. Barth that Dr. p. who followed Weber in assuming that the legend come. Ivdische Weber's view is shared by the French Catholic Streifen. at least highly probable. 24.
received the knowledge of
who worshipped the One God and had that God from a supernatural
.
Weber and
others as a piece of genuine history
and the
T
White
Island" (which might also mean the "island of the w hite ones ") is assumed to be Alexandria. however. who says " It is even certain. 318-321 Indische Stndien. not the least paternally favoured is his interpretation of a certain mythic tale in 4 the Mahabharata. quoted bv Tiele. infirm theses so long cherished by Professor Weber. Ueber die Erislmajanmdshtami.
have also seen how completely Weber was mistaken as to the opinion of Wilson.
is
fastened upon
. surmised on the other hand that Svetadvipa would be Parthia. Neve.
4 xii. 342-3.
The "White Island.
.
there
voice. Senart. for no other reason than that Alexandria seems the likeliest place whence the knowledge of Christianity could 5 Lassen. Tijdschr."
There is only one more proposition as to the influence of ChrisAmong the tianity on Krishnaism that calls for our attention. though that too was held by Dr. 223. It does not appear. TJieolog. to the effect that once upon a time Narada.
12702. which is not in the British Museum. however. 1876. that the White Island is Alexandria " {Des elements etrangers du mytlxe et du culte de Krichna.
We
§
20. pp. 218-220.
3
5
Essai.THE "WHITE ISLAND"
scholars
267
should not see that what
1
is
natural in one country is
natural in another also. as cited." On the other hand. and
before him other mythic personages. 21. the only record that can be pretended to look like a
Hindu
by
mention of the importation of Christianity. p. to have added anything to the German arguments.91. Lorinser's special proposition is scouted by M.
ff. Neve's book.
Religions of India. pp. I have not been able to meet with M." beyond the " Sea of Milk ".

Christianity
1
I
It will readily be believed that these
favour with later investigators." " White horse. and as ekdnta.
is
all
assumptions find small Telang in India.
1099-1101.
. too." and "White blood.
:
was very early and yet that Brahmans went
elsewhere to learn it so loosely can a great scholar speculate. xi] or any other country or region in this world. that the instruction which Narad receives in this wonderful land is not received from its inhabitants. from God himself. to the twenty-five primal principles. that Christianity
imported by Christians into India. I think that it must be at once admitted that the whole of the prelection addressed to Narad bears on its face its essentially Indian character. On the contrary. which is
.
. [Sanskrit quoted. Tiele in Holland." In the Mahabharata legend the Yoga is represented as the source of the true knowledge hence it follows that both stories refer to the same thing. in the reference to the three qualities. Against all this what have we to consider ? Why. but from Bhagavan. and having four scholars. I should like to know what geography has any notion of the quarter of this earth where we are to look for the Sea of Milk and the Mount of Gold. It is worth noting only as a further sample of the same laxity that Lassen thought the hypothesis about Svetadvipa was put on firm
ground
(ei?ies
festen Grundcs)
by
citing the fact that in the late
Kurma Purana
of the Kali
there
is
a legend about Siva appearing in the beginning
Yuga or Evil Age to teach the " Yoga " system on the Himalayas." "White hair. or the British Isles [this has been done by Colonel Wilford. " White. Consider next the description of the wonderful people inhabiting this wonderful Dvip. to the description of final emancipation as absorption or entrance into the Divinity.—
268
CHEIST AND KRISHNA
the " India " of Bartholomew and Pantaenus to be Yemen. Mr. and who entered the sun.
!
1
Indisclie
Alterthumskunde.
Senart and Barth in France. reject them.
. whatever that may mean Remember. who ate nothing. and above it by thirty-two thousand yojans.
ii (1849).
We
are
thus
left to believe. or Asia Minor. Telang's criticism
especially destructive
:
" I cannot see the flimsiest possible ground for identifying the Svetadvip of the legend with Alexandria. Asiatic Researches. The Dvip is in the first place stated to lie to the north of the Kshirasamudra and to the north-west of Mount Meru.] It will be news to the world that there were in Alexandria or elsewhere a whole people without any organs of sense. Nor let it be forgotten that the doctrines which the deity there announces to Narad cannot be shown to have any connection with Christianity. and various other matters of the like character. if
we
choose. nothing more than the description of the inhabitants as white.

Tiele emphatically
endorses Telang
" With all respect for such men as Lassen and Weber. into Ena. shows us. blank verse."
of the
The details as to the supernatural character of the inhabitants White Island.
Belig. there a monotheistic revelation.] Svetadvipa is a land of fable. p.). are ignored by both Weber and
Lassen.
4
2
3
Theolog. for instance. i. means monotheists (Sed qucere). All the places and persons in the legend are purely mythological Narada can as little as his predecessors be reckoned a historical personage. such as we meet and the white inhabitants. but from the supreme deity himself. 800.
Equally explicit
is
the decision of
M. are spirits of light. 221." " We are here in sheer mythology. at least the legend says nothing as to its being derived from Alexandria 2 or any other religious centre. Nasiketas going to the world of Yama
ancient
origin
:
influence. Professor Weber thinks. Senart
:
" It is certain that all the constituent elements of this story are either clearly mythological or. a paradise. [Quotes Telang. sq) that the Pandavas were the founders of the cult of VishnuKrishna. Who would venture to see in these white heroes." regards the Svetadvipa legend as
4
a "purely fanciful relation. Tijdschr. xsxiv-v.
. And whencesoever the poet may have derived this monotheism. p. the manner of their application (the Katha Upanishad. It 1 appears to me that the story is a mere work of the imagination.
and
a vague memory of borrowings made from Christian doctrines. of India."
1
Bhagavat Gita
trans.
It is
to seek philosophical instruction)." and that there were probably Christian Churches in India "before the redaction of the
Mahabharata was quite
finished.—
THE
"
—
WHITE ISLAND "
269
which. Essai. iv. but one only needs to glance at the words in which it is conveyed to perceive its Indian character. i. apart from any Christian another matter to inquire if the use made of the materials. The question cannot be definitively handled save on positive dates. It has been sought to show (Muir. cited. 342. be it observed. Alt. n."
:
.' whom Lassen holds on the other hand to be new comers from the West (Ind. even while admitting that Brahmans may have early " visited the Churches of the East. the representatives of a Christian influence on 3 the religious ideas of India?"
preserves
:
'
And M. Barth in turn.
70. I can hardly conceive of such a species of historical criticism.
Introd.
who pursue
:
the Evemeristic method. not from the inhabitants. which we do not possess inductions are extremely perilous. sq. art. pp. Sanskrit Texts. a dwelling of the sun. p. of very
both belong to India. betrays a
Western
influence. in the speculative parts. sq. 248. with in so many religious systems Narada receives exalted above personal needs.

270
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
It is needless. avowed that no practical influence on Indian religion could justly be attributed to the Christian missionaries in the early centuries. 144-6 (ch. Anacalypsis. His assumption rested mainly on an 4 oversight of the archasologist Moor.
The Crucifixion Myth.
. is on its merits nothing short of grotesque. Godfrey Higgins.
. i. that a crucifixion
2 Indische Alterthumskimde. The latter circumstance plainly proves nothing
of the
whatever for his case. Weber assumes the Hindus to have been influenced by Greek thought at and after the conquest of Alexander why then should they not have had the idea from Greek philosophy not to speak of Persia or Egypt before the Christian era? Even Lassen. In the Bhagavat Purana the slayer is the forester Bhil. ii. ii).
While the Christian claim seems thus
claim. for the rest. a scholar whose energy and learning too often missed their right fruition just because his work was a desperate revolt against a whole world of pious obscurantism. in the Krishnaite ritual. as last cited. In other connections. and the veneration of Narada. or into 1 the point raised by Weber as to the commemoration of the Milk Sea and the White Island. to go into the question of the
manner
"introduction" of the monotheistic idea into India. pp.. In the Mahabharata and the Vishnu Purana the slayer is the hunter Jara (=" old age. the slaying is unintentional but predestined.
however. In both cases. 1836. 5 being slain by an arrow which pierced his foot. 3 5
. and rejected the 2 view that the Hindus derived monotheism from Christianity. who in collecting Hindu Godimages had a Christian crucifix presented to him as a native " Wittoba" a late minor Avatar commonly represented as pierced Krishna is indeed represented in the Puranic legend as in one foot. here comparing curiously with the solar Achilles of Hellenic mythology but he is not crucified and Moor later admitted that the figure in question
which
—
. Ueber die Krishnaj. 1102-3-5-9. :
—
—
§
21. but mention here. 416-20. A strenuous freethinker of the early part of last century. after Athanasius.
was
1
Christian. and pi. 4 Hindu Pantheon. 98. a problem of
calls for
there incidentally arises.
It is not at all certain. and that it was the missionaries who had contrived to withhold the fact from 3 general European knowledge." "decay"). unwittingly put rationalists on a false scent by adopting the view that Krishna had in an ancient legend been crucified. moreover. out of an equally mistaken countervailing
which I cannot pretend to offer a solution. while holding the Christian theory of Svetadvipa.
to collapse at all points. though he professes to be placed beyond doubt by it and the idea that Brahmans could derive the idea of monotheism from the Christians of Alexandria.

84. It is very
true that in their book the cross
is represented. when all the people worshipped them. the Portuguese Jesuit Andrade.
1 Histoire de ce qui c'est passe av Boyavme dv Tibet. though it appears that the Nepalese usage in question still flourishes. Hist. who. others of metals.. hands.
They believe. testifies to the existence of a crucifixion myth
in that country. He appends two woodcuts. These were usually in the churches. in which the cross seems wholly covered with leaves. La Croze. Andrade will be found cited by M. La Croze has a theory of Nestorian influences.
1
with nails. but without any cross. 2 Aluhabetum Thibetanum.
in the triune
God.
all
The
later
missionaries
. 51. 1629. us in saying that Christ" [i. and to represent him as crucified. "which crosses in their language they call Iandar. 203. holding only that he died shedding his blood. only the upper part of the deity's body is seen. 1724. Paris. pp. strewing flowers and lighting lamps before them. p. Christ. Dr. d'ltalien en Francois. 514. knowing little or nothing of the his veins
holy cross. and certain mystic letters which they cannot explain. declares on his own knowledge of Tibet that in Nepal it was customary in the month of August to raise in honour of the God Indra cruces amictas abrotono. p. which flowed from on account of the nails with which he was put to death. two months' journey off. 45-6. known as "the great book"] "died for the saving of the human race. to whom he gave money to make a cross and they told him that in their country. trad. but on five days in the year they were put on the public roads.
du
. the hands pierced. their Second Person. V. p. but give
" They agree with. La Haye. and feet. and only the head."
Andrade further testifies that there were three or four goldsmiths King of Tibet. As long ago
doubt have far from certain
as
1626. des Indes.
suppressed what they conveniently could
that
we
yet
know
the relevant
and it is modern facts. 2 Godfrey Higgins reproduced and commented on those pictures." This evidence is remarkably corroborated in 1772 by the Jesuit Giorgi. One is a very singular representation of a crucifix. natives of other countries. In the other. with the arms extended. crosses wreathed with abrotonus. some of wood. and bearing the •sign Telech on forehead. the hands and feet as if pierced
of the
. but I find no discussion of the matter in recent writers. the forehead marked.e. in the very act of maintaining that all Krishnaism was a perversion of Christianity. hands. 1772. with a triangle in the middle. and feet of the crucified one appear. in his letters from Tibet to the General of his Order. Cp. the forehead bearing a rnark. 49-50. but they do not know the manner of his death.
tells. there were many such crosses as his.THE CRUCIFIXION MYTH
myth
did not anciently nourish in Asia. as
271
did in
we know one
no
pre-Christian
Mexico. he him absurdly wrong names and
. Eomae.

September at the present time " figures of Indra." in the Contemporary Review of April." and that the old Persian and Egyptian symbols seem to explain this by a figure of the sun or the God with " the sun of righteousness with healing in its outstretched wings it is seen to be perfectly possible that not merely the crosswings" symbol. 6 The Christian crucifixion story falls to be studied in other lights. Alphab. and afterwards named Sulastha. ii. however. The only suggestions of the cross in Krishnaism apart from its appearance in late sculpture or
pictorial art are in the curious legend
3
the meeting point of three rivers
in the story of
trees. 69. should have
about the city"
1
—
i. and there appeared two Brahmans a tale
form a cross
—which would
that the
God was
buried at
— —
which the indignant Giorgi held to be a perversion of the crucifixion 4 The story given by Wilford 5 of the of Christ between two thieves.
i
3
4
!
. 1880. p. I am not aware that there has been any detailed discrimination of the genuine and the spurious in Wilford's compilations. but as the matter is never mentioned by Weber or other later Sanskritists it is presumably one of the frauds practised on Wilford by his pandits." is stated by the narrator to be told at great length in the " Sayadrichandra. When we note that the Persian Sun-God Mithra is imaged in the Zendavesta " with arms stretched 2 out towards immortality. one of which is indicated above. Balfour's Ind.e. Cycl. 314. but a crucifixion myth. 259). Oldfield
erected
all
further details. or " cross-borne.
—
—
flourished in ancient India. at a time when it had been generally superseded by the cult of And there is no suggestion that any Christian doctrine Krishna. 1st ed. Krishna. a section of the Scanda Purana. holy Brahman Mandavya. Giorgi held that the detail of Krishna's commending the care of his 1.
2 Mihir Yasht.600 wives to Arjuna was a fiction based on the records of the multitude of women 5 Asiatic Researches. 6 On this see Professor Max Miiller's article "On False Analogies in Comparative Theology. A. reprinted with his Introduction to the Science of Religion. connects with the usage described. 253. 1873. Sketches from Nepal.272
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
states that in the Indra festival in August.
This. goes for nothing as regards Krishnaism.
Kathmandu
—
Weber would seem
to
. 31. Thib. who followed Christ from Galilee (p. are
H. though Krishna was the supplanter of Indra. who was crucified among thieves in the Deccan. x. which is universal.
and Yasoda binding the child Krishna to a tree. or to two The trees opened. art.. with outstretched arms. since he makes no allusion to it.
but he gives no have entirely overlooked the The prima facie inference matter. 1870. have here a really ancient and extra-Brahmanical is that we development of the Indra cult since it is hard to conceive how any Christian suggestion should be grafted on that worship in particular." and to be given briefly in the Mahabharata and alluded to in the Bhagavat Purana " and its commentary ".

vi. 24 (22). viii. is clearly worthless. and another to know what were the results.
It is impossible to
8
the reference of Juvenal
that India
say what is the force of to the " hired Indian. The cult of Krishna is proved by documentary evidence to have flourished in India before the Christian era. There is thus an overwhelming presumption in favour of the view that these myth-elements were Hindu property long before our
3.
Other leading elements in the myth such as the upbringing God among herdsmen and herdswomen are found long before Christianity in the solar legend which attached to Cyrus while this myth and the story of the God's birth are found strikingly paralleled in the pre-Christian mythology of Greece and Egypt. and though there
was
visited
by Apollonius
§
22. 2. on which Wilson founds. On the one hand. of Vishnu Purdna. for instance.
.
Summary. In its pre-Christian form it presumptively. and no uncertainty." This confirms our previous argument as to the antiquity of the hero-God
1
2
4
.
worships.
SUMMARY
Scientific criticism. Adversus Manichceos. Nat. vi.
It may be convenient to sum up concisely the results. though it has developed somewhat and gained much ground since. xlvi. i {Hcereses. as to the embassies sant by Porus to Augustus. 3 Sat. Hist. 1. like so many
. it is one thing to be convinced of the communication. Strabo. finally. 74 Pliny. positive and negative.
earth and the stars". 585.
Trans.. sive lxvi). It is worth noting that Pliny in this chapter says of the people of Taprobane (doubtless Ceylon) that " Hercules is the deity they worship. if not certainly.
tations. They may be roughly classed under these two heads. of the foregoing investigation. and by 4 the king of " Taprobane " to Claudius. skilled as to the
of
is no great reason to doubt Tyana. Introd.
—
of
the
—
era. That there was then " an active communication between India and the Red Sea " is indeed certain and it is arguable that Christism borrowed from Buddhism but the testimony of 2 Epiphanius. 1. No theory of influence in either direction can be founded on such transient contacts.
. were it only because he uses the term " India " at random. p. xv.
273
cannot found on the opinion of Wilson
Weber) to the effect that Gnostic Christian doctrines were borrowed from Hinduism in the
(who
is
so often cited to other purpose by
1
second century.
other ancient writers. contained some of the myth-elements which have been claimed as borrowings from Christianity such as the myth of Kansa and that myth was probably made the subject of dramatic represen-
—
.

He acquired some ancient of the leading qualities of Agni.
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
The
fact that
Krishna
is
in the
Vedas a daemon
is
rightly to
be taken as a proof of the antiquity of his cult. and Virgin-and-Child contrary. to whom also was The same attribute is bound up with attributed a daemonic origin.
points clearly to
Its
mythology
an extra-Brahmanic origin.
5. was connected with myths which are enshrined in the Vedas.274
4.
favour of the antiquity of the cult. we are led to the constructive position that Krishna is an ancient extra-Brahmanic Indian deity. and not vice versa." which is common to
the conception of the oldest mythologies. the God as a " hiding one.
All of
which positively-ascertained
facts
and
with the hypothesis theological matter from that Krishnaism borrowed mythological and
fully-justified conclusions are in violent conflict
Christism. The attribute of blackness in a beloved deity. since the Christian Virgin-myth worship are certainly of pre-Christian origin. remarkably
paralleled in the case of the Egyptian Osiris. though it includes myth-motives which closely coincide with Vedic myth-motives.
On
1.
it
could not conceivably have taken in the legend
of the upbringing
among herdsmen. or more probably in both stages. notably those connected with Agni.
the other hand. The close coincidences in the legends of Krishna and explained in terms of borrowing by the latter from the are to be
The
ethical
former. Ritual is far more often the basis of myth than the converse and the Krishnaite Birth-ritual in itself raises a presumption in
. too.
teaching bound up with Krishnaism in the Bhagavat Gita is a development on distinctly Hindu lines of Vedic it is ideas. and is no more derived from the New Testament than from the literature of Greece and Rome. and supplanted Indra. and of comparatively
. Buddha 8.Aryan. who was nevertheless worshipped by Aryanspeakers long before our era.
were
of late
and
Brahmanic
7.
Such phenomena as the Birth-Festival ritual and the pictorial representation of the babe Krishna as suckled by his mother cannot reasonably be held to be borrowed from the Christians. in his earliest phase apparently non. any more
On the than the myths positively proved to be pre-Christian. is a mark of ancient derivation. 6. The leading elements in the Krishna
myth
If it
are inexplicable
save on the view that the cultus
is
ancient. whose
prestige he acquired.
In fine. either before or after his adoption by the Brahmans. and.
origin.

third was borrowed from India and the necessary assumption." were borrowed by the Hindus from
Chris-
which itself unquestionably borrowed the first two and the The more plausible surmise is rather that the last from Paganism. and was presumably widespread. is that the others also were ancient in India.
Christism
in
in
its
absorbent stage. Nor can we without defying all probability suppose that such motives as the " ox-and-ass.
.
.
It
is
further
possible that
the introduction of
shepherds
into
the
Christian
Birth-legend
Gospel was suggested by knowledge of the Krishna legend. and
already found in Semitic mythology in the story of Moses. 2.SUMMARY
late Christian acceptance. which
minutely paralleled in one particular in the Egyptian myth of the 1 concealment of Horus in the floating island." and
the
'
Christophoros. The resemblances between certain Krishnaite and Christian miracles." the " manger. cannot be set down to Hindu borrowing
:
1
Herodotus. The natural presumption is that the Hindu massacre of the innocents is as old as the Kansa myth the onus of disproof lies with those who allege borrowing from the Gospels.
4. whether or not any of them thence reached
tianity." the "tax-paying. The converse hypothesis has been shown to be
the late
third
preposterous.
ii.
156.
275
and since the Virgin-myth was associated
with Buddhism even for Westerns in the time of Jerome. in the present state of our knowledge. though the source was more probably intermediate between India and the Mediterranean. and related in others to the universal myth of the attempted slaying of the divine child. It is equally extravagant to suppose that such a usage as the Krishnaite "name-giving" was borrowed from the short-lived usage
India (which had a
Egypt
. 5.
of the
3. in the same way. the adoration of a Suckling-God is to be presumed pre-Christian in
Babe-God in Agni in the Veda) as it was in even becomes conceivable that certain parts of the Christian Birth-legend are directly or indirectly derived from Krishnaism. It is an extravagance to suppose the converse. A similar usage prevailed in the pre-Christian cult of Herakles.
The myth
of the
Massacre
of the
Innocents
it
is
the more to
be regarded as pre-Christian in India because
connects naturally
is is
with the motive of the attempted slaying of the God-child. though here again an intermediate source is more likely.
and
it
Church of Alexandria in the matter of combining the Nativity and Epiphany.

Christianity so-called.
:
1 It need hardly be explained that not a tithe of the mythical stories connected with Krishna have been mentioned above. and Religion.
. in short. 2 Compare Mr. and bracketed with etymological arguments which are beneath serious notice. Scholars are agreed that late 2 documents often preserve extremely old myth-material. Thus every claim made in this connection by Christians recoils more or less forcibly on their own creed.276
CHRIST AND KRISHNA
1
from Christism when so many of the parallel myths are certainly not so borrowed. Myth. 1st ed. 6. The lateness of the Puranic stories in literary form is no
argument against their antiquity. and are all either explicable in terms of the sun-myth or mere poetic adornments of the general legend. some of the parallels alleged on the Christian side are absurdly far-fetched. we find to be wholly manufactured from pre-existent material within historic times Krishnaism we have seen to have had a pre-historic existence. They are extremely numerous. For the rest. i. and so many more presumably in the same case. 291. Ritual. Lang.

are really mere adaptations from myths
of
much
greater
antiquity
inferred personality of the
and that accordingly the alleged or Founder is under suspicion of being as
. the matter of doctrine equally so with the matter of action. In the second century.
again. held by Christians to be historical. which only " seemed " to suffer on the cross and many Gnostics had all along regarded him as an abstraction.
criticism
denied the historicity of Jesus
1
and
in
the
Dieu
et les
Homme s. Broadly. there is simply nothing left which can entitle anyone to a belief in any tangible personality behind the name.
the sixteenth century. sectaries are found taking highly mystical
views of the Founder's personality. A " Docetic " view of Jesus was professed by the secret society of clerics and others which was broken up at Orleans about 1022 and in England as elsewhere. in
.
. is not new in the history of though the grounds for it may be so. .
contention
criticism. they have shown that a number of data in the Christian gospels. Voltaire
historical
1
tells of disciples of
In the eighteenth century. as scholars are aware. if not in the first. the " Docetae " had come to conceive of the Founder as a kind of supernatural phantom.
277
ch.
Such a view. and held even by some Naturalists to be either historical or at least accretions round the life and doctrine of a remarkable religious teacher and creed-founder.
mythical as that of the demi-gods of older lore. Bolingbroke who on grounds of
. both miraculous and non-miraculous. It is not here undertaken to offer a complete demonstration of the truth of that surmise but our survey would be unduly imperfect if the problem were not stated and to some extent dealt with.
is that when every salient item in the legend of the Gospel Jesus turns out to be more or less clearly mythical. One or other view recurs in medieval heresy from time to time. 39. the
.PAET
III
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
PREAMBLE
If the foregoing pages in any degree effect their purpose.

Einleit. 5 Etudes d 'histoire religieuse.. 161. 1806. See. was the "mythical theory" put in currency among special students. p. as to the part played by the cross in the Passover feast. reaching anew the conviction
myth-construction by the consciousness of
of
the unhistorical
early
nature of the gospel narratives. as it was by Renan 5 in his youth. end. that
new anthropological we can claim to have an
of
adequate
scientific basis
for a
definite rejection
the Christian
narrative as a whole. suggested the mythical view. an extravagant position.
has largely receded from a supernaturalist to a quasiand even professes
its
a
new
confidence on
new
ground. 1784. however. followed an unhistorical method and even the notably original work of Kulischer. in conversation with Renan.
supporters.
put. though containing many important mythological clues. pp. Miinchen. friend M. die
am
Passahfeste
im Tempel dargebracht wurde
(Leipzig. p. outran the problem and ignored some of the most obviously necessary processes of historical analysis. the latter answered. Origine de tons
les
Cultes." The self-contradiction is very characteristic. 4 Kulischer draws some of his most interesting details from Bonifacius Haneberg. set forth the theory of a process of
the
Christian
community.
Das Leben
my
. in the opinion of its Though in the meantime Christian scholar-
ship
itself
naturalist position as to the historicity of Jesus. § 11. 86. Origine des Constellations. I so considered
it. involving an extension of the mytho-
and
of the
documentary analysis which
of the
he omitted to make.. "Cela aussi peut se soutenir.
Jesu. which.
Bruno Bauer. irrefutable. from that when he. 155. the radically negative view
rapidly gains ground. for instance. " setting
forth an early form of the conception of the Vegetation-God. But Bauer. Das Leben Jesu eine Sage von dem Schicksale und Erlebnissen des Bodenfrucht.
I am well aware that it will still be commonly considered.
logical analysis of Strauss
It is
only after a
process of all-round induction. though admitting divergences.
the naturalist view
1
and
my
later acquiescence
though I already held has been the result
Le Zodiaque chrono-
2
3
Les Ruines. but the anonymous German work mentioned 3 by Strauss as reducing it to an ideal which had a prior existence in the Jewish mind. as well as a study
materials of the past half-century. citing Haneberg.
278
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
1
period of the French Revolution
we have not only the works of 2 and Dupuis. The theses of Dupuis and Volney.
logique. rather encouraged than checked the orthodox reaction and not till
Volney
. When in my
youth I
first
heard
it
.
But that claim is now.
insbesondere der sogenannten palastinischen Erstlingsgarbe. Die religiosen Alterthumer der Bibel.. unduly
ignores the complexity of the historical problem. Novicow I learn.' reducing the gospel biography to a set of astronomical myths. 1869. too. at a later period. 1876). 1791. 1794. 393.

are purely mythical creations. any more than in the existence of Juno or Ashtaroth. as well as
by the daily devotion
state
if
of ages. are still confident of the historicity
of
Buddha. Mithra.
not satisfactory. Dionysos. are seen to be as certainly mythic as Apollo and Zeus and Brahma and Vishnu. it is still arguable that if Mohammed founded a religion somewhat in the fashion in which
. of course. How then is a line to be scientifically drawn between. 85).g. Herakles. student now believes in the historic actuality of Osiris or Dionysos 1 or Herakles. to convey useful knowledge. Many scholars. the mythic personalities of Dionysos and Osiris and
Adonis. Prof.
. still affirm the historicity of the Hindu God Krishna. however.
The
so-called
Evemerism
of
Spencer in no sense reinstates that view. Hermes.
Mohammed
is
a
real
personage. It is now agreed that the ancient deities who figure as coming among men to teach creeds. it should be noted. as was believed in the eighteenth century by Mosheim.
is
exploded.PEEAMBLE
of the sheer gradual pressure of the
279
argument from analysis a more thorough analysis. p. and on the other those of Zarathustra and
Buddha and
historical
Jesus?
We
all
agree that. however. which traced all deities alike to
historical
personages. Horos. that I consider the first recoil from that proposition to have arisen mainly from the mere force of psychological habit even on the plane of innovating criticism. The early rationalism of Evemeros. e. on the one hand. the incredibility of
the lives of
most famous religion-makers is in almost the exact ratio of their historic distance. That circumstance is not.
recollection
of
A
clear
that psychological
as
may
possibly
make the
present argument in a measure judicial. of course. for the theory that primeval man reached his God-idea by way of ancestor-worship gives no shelter to the notion that Hermes and Mithra. The belief in the personality of the Gospel Jesus. Adonis. Estlin Carpenter (see above. for instance. is a psychic
product far removed from even a Greek's belief in Apollo. though not distance. is the determinant. p.
1 Some scholars. were distinguished personages within the historical period. Osiris. and No to found religious institutions. built up not only by the bare gospel record but by whole literatures of
—
appreciation. Attis.
Significantly enough. than that which motived the earlier proposition.
The question
to
the actuality of the alleged founders of
ancient religions may best be approached by the comparative method. 137) and Prof. I would fain hope. in itself decisive against the actuality of any given founder for though all history becomes more and more clearly mythical the further we go back on any one line of tradition. Garbe (The Philosophy of Ancient India. but culture-stage. I desire to avow. 1899. say.

" system. But is it more forcible than that made anciently on men's minds by
1 Compare the recent work of Dr.
280
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
is
(supernaturalism apart) he
said to have done. in that case." But what was that origin and who was their human founder? Clearly there was no one " founder ". Flinders Petrie.
1
Ehys Davids.
he [M.
:
..
. for instance. be it observed like the cults of Dionysos and Osiris and Herakles all of which of course had a "historical origin. there was not even a group or school
: . p. Senart] does not doubt
and he holds that Buddhism. Personal Religion in Egypt before Christianity.
more can well be made out. The bare surmise of a somebody. whose historic actuality is not
doubted
is one such myth in the life of Plato.
. 1909. who compare so closely with Jesus as religion-founders. vii. Very much the same must be said of 3 the interesting attempt of Miss Harrison to find a historic personage behind the shining figure of Orpheus. nevertheless cites M. 2 Buddhism. agreeing with M. "That the
Professor
that the
historical basis is or once ivas there. Senart as admitting Buddha's historic actuality. and an historical origin. must have had 2 Like every other a human founder. who appears to be at And a number of thoughtful bottom a real historical personage.
It will
not suffice merely to reply that there are unquestionable myths in the stories of Jesus and Buddha there are one or two such myths in the story of the life of Confucius. a Jewish or
an
Asiatic prophet in earlier times
may have done
:
the same. 193. conveys no image of a personality and nothing
. why do we accept as historical Buddha and Jesus ? Shall we say that behind the mythic figures of Osiris and Dionysos there may have been
some remote actual man who communicated certain culture and was The answer is that such a later worshipped by certain rites ? hypothesis is neither here nor there it stands for nothing it makes no impact on our perception.
then we reject as we do the pseudo-historical Osiris and Dionysos.
there
actuality
is
. .
describable
as
collective
founders
:
we
are
dealing with
If
a long
process of evolution from simple primitive forms. students still believe in the historic actuality of Zarathustra and Buddha. though in their ostensible biographies they are framed in clouds of myth. The accredited personalities of Buddha and Jesus. Senart Buddha legend is substantially made up of myths from the older lore of Krishna and Earn a and Agni. whose historic no more doubted than that of Aristotle and there is much myth in the life of Apollonius of Tyana. ch. like every other system. 3 Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion. on the other hand. do make a very deep impression.

No
an argument a more complete non Supposing it to be granted that every sequitur than the foregoing. or than that made in India to-day by the story and the mystic teaching of Krishna ? Is not the difference for us simply one of psychological habit ? Is there any more evidence for a real cult-founding Buddha than for a real
teaching Krishna
?
scholar who in our time has done most and primeval origination of the religious ideas out of which Christism grew is content to give an impatient " The historical reality both of Buddha and of Christ. " has sometimes been doubted or denied. and the theocrats of post-exilian Jerusalem but he will not thereby succeed in proving the historicity of Moses and Aaron." we are not a step nearer proving the historicity of Jesus and Buddha. J.
. and redactors of the Pentateuch. and the literature of early Buddhism and still Jesus and Buddha may be mythical. The great religious movements which have stirred humanity to its depths and altered the beliefs of nations spring ultimately from the conscious and deliberate efforts of extraordinary minds." can a specialist dispose of a problem which disturbs his pre-
suppositions even as his
own
research disturbs those of others. Frazer. compilers. if he will.
1906. but
sively
Thus inexpenno favour with the philosophic historian. great innovating religious movement springs " ultimately from the conscious and deliberate efforts of extraordinary minds. G. It would be just as reasonable to question the historical existence of Alexander the Great and Charlemagne on account of the legends which have gathered round them. Osiris (Monograph
4 of
recast of
The Golden Bough). note. Among the movements coming under Dr. Attis. to rank as extraordinary minds the framers. Frazer's description may be reckoned the introduction of the Dionysiak cult in Greece but he would not venture on the strength of the formula under notice to assert the historicity of Dionysos. is proved as fully as that of any rulers
theologian ever presented as
.
. unconscious co-operation
To such a challenge the
to illustrate the natural
of
the multitude. not from the blind.PBEAMBLE
281
the stories of Osiris and Herakles.
:
1
Adonis. His hasty reference to Alexander and Charlemagne is the merest begging-of-the-question the historicity of those rulers. He is free.
. p.
The attempt
to explain
history
1
without the
it
influence of great
will find
men may
flatter
the vanity of the vulgar. 202. writes Dr. A whole series of relatively " extraordinary minds " may be supposed to have co-operated in framing the gospels." dismissal. as he knows. the Pauline epistles." and that there is no medium order of factor between these and " the multitude.

trans. when he suddenly [appears as a There is no analogy here to the careers of Alexander and Charlemagne. Jesus.
Thus Professor Schmiedel reduces
1
to nine the passages
which
in his
opinion clearly testify to the presence of a real person under the
Messianic mask. Part present work.
his full manhood. 38. had not its teachings become words of eternal life in 2 Once more the theologian corrects the the mouth of its Founder.
and
in the
Appendix to the
2 3
Das Christenthum und
Compare Baur." apriorism of the professed Naturalist.
ch. as enigmatic from a humanist as from a superview. in fact. Frazer may be set the pregnant avowal " How soon would everything true and important that of Baur was taught by Christianity have been relegated to the order of the long-faded sayings of the noble humanitarians and thinking sages of antiquity.
that
totally lacking in the cases of Moses. Dr. Miraculously born.founder. in an increasing number.
ii.
§
4. not a man Jesus round whom myths have gathered.
:
Rationally considered. 35-36. 1853
pp. though on the basis of these he claims to validate
of the record. are found to avow that on a close scrutiny the gospels present. as distinguished from a God or Demigod. the Earth-Mother.
(Eng. Frazer's argument is.282
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
is
of their respective epochs. in the spirit and on the plane of that of the clerical apologists who declare that
is
the Resurrection of Jesus
Julius Caesar. he reappears as a natural man even
parents
:
the
myth
till
will not cohere. i. long committed to the maxim myth is framed to explain the rite.) as cited. Whatever may have been the share of extraordinary minds in securing the spread of the Christian or any other religion.
as well attested as the assassination of
that "the
While the professed mythologist. he
an
unintelligible portent
a Galilean of the
common
people. even as did the Greeks to Demeter. even some professed theologians are found so much more alive to the nature of the problem as to confess that only in respect of a few particulars can they claim to find in the gospels trustworthy primary evidence of a real Jesus. to the knowledge of
in the opinion of his
is
many. it would really be truer to assign the main influence to the multitude of ordinary propagandists and the
much more
:
favouring social conditions
3
—not
to say the " blind co-operation of
II.
. critically
untraceable
cult. And other clerical writers.
die christliche Eirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte. but an apocalyptic Jesus to whom have been given some human traits.
is
The Gospel Jesus
naturalist point of
by manifold normal evidence of a kind and Buddha." thus commits himself
to the historicity of the non-miraculous details in the gospel narrative.
1 See these discussed in Parian Christ s. Against the nugatory affirmation of Dr.

Testament in such a case as the text of Moderately.
Now. our tendency
to believe in his actuality. Many plainly fictitious teachings were ascribed to King Solomon.
come down to us solely as it stands in the apocryphal gospels. The story of the promulgation of the Ten Commandments is palpable myth. who is at most a historical outline and the same thing could easily happen with a pre-Christian Jesus-God. which give mere miracles without moral teaching.
doctrinal
myth
in the
New
the Three Witnesses.
movements
as
Mormonism and
" Christian
Science " in modern
times are in possession of some of the knowledge that discounts the conventional formula still relied upon by Dr. and sees. Frazer in a field of
criticism
which he has not made
field
its
his
own.
Entering that
methods which
tion as this
in
:
with proper attention to the special tests and nature prescribes. it could not to-day retain any hold among men of education and judgment though a certain number of such men appear still to
the Jesus legend
. Even orthodox scholarship admits the late intrusion of
.heterodox criticism goes so far
as to see a similar process behind the text. "
on this rock
I will build
my
Church.PREAMBLE
the multitude.
even
he be otherwise quasi-mythical.
There are myths
of doctrine as well as
myths of action. for
Thou art Peter. and More scientific criticism instance. Apollonius of Tyana so taught and where is his cultus? Those who have intelligently noted the history of such
—
to explain all in
."
goes a great deal further. then does the analysis logically stop ? Careful comparative study resolves such discourses as the Sermon on the Mount into
. Many extraordinary men have taught greatly without creating great popular movements.
and it is because this is and Osiris that the same men dismiss the notion
Moses and Zarathustra and lacking in the myths of Dionysos
of
their actuality.
Had
believe in the miracle stories of the canonical gospels.
cling to the personalities of
It is
on
this
account that
many men
Buddha
. we reach some such generalizais
that where any alleged religion-founder
represented
what appear
if
to be ancient accounts as uttering a coherent
is
and
impressive moral doctrine.
ground
it
is
obvious that in a general
way
this is
no
sufficient
for a critical belief.
it is
the moral teaching
that to-day upholds any sincere faith in the tale.
Apart from
the sheer force of habit and of partisanship. father and son. the same process
." whose blindness
283
is the main condition of all than terms of " extraordinary " founders.
behind the whole discourses of the fourth gospel though these very discourses only a generation ago set up a special impression of Where actuality in two such men as the Arnolds.

In the forefront stands the compiled Sermon on the Mount the parables figure as
1
. and the invincible difficulty will still face us the theoretic beginner of the cult has eluded search we are dealing with myths
stultifies
the teaching of the context.
the predictions of the
. to set forth the conclusions reached by Dr. and is not permanently tenable. of testing the synoptic gospels down to an apparent nucleus of primitive narrative.
284
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
many
teachers
compilations of the gnomic sayings of
called Lord's
Prayer
is
plainly pre-Christian.
from the
point
of
view.
1
Written in
1899.
Nor does Mr.
one which
still
passes with
many
semi-blasphemy the process. A. however. Even on the face of it. how came it that Paul never cites a single one of them ? I do not here press the point that Dr.
such Jesuine teachings were actually current.
is
The one tenable
historic
hypo-
thesis left to us at this stage
that of a preliminary Jesus "B. Accepting for the argument's sake the "Primitive Gospel" thus educed.
.
public discourses
. If
biographical quality. in The Synoptic
believers for
. we find it to be still a literary patchwork. are admitted
are already installed
. Granting that there has been abundant interpolation. probably. Jolley retain obvious patches for instance.
the mythical Twelve Apostles
and there
is
not a single datum of a truly
Jolley once face the problem. Bernhard Weiss in his works on Mark and Matthew seems thus far to have attracted hardly any orthodox attention in England. made up of miracles and unhistorical discourses.. J."
a vague cult-founder such as the Jesus ben Panclira of the Talmud." in
Luke
xiii. that will be the position of those Christians who still continue to use the weapons of argument though the interesting attempt of Mr. . this new position is one of retreat. namely.
where that formula completely
Let the text be still further such evidently heterogeneous tissue.
tested down. The Birth Myth and the Crucifixion are not there but the Temptation Myth and the Transfiguration are.
of doctrine
and myths
of action. the " except ye repent ye shall
:
all
likewise perish. Weiss and Mr. Ere long.
?
and the soAt what point do
. Jolley. this method proceeds on the axiom that a nucleus there must have been and argues that its disencumberment amounts to establishing a solid historical basis.C.
Problem for English Readers (1893).
we touch
biographical bottom
of
The strongest way
rationalist
putting the Christian
is
:
case. to the elimination of
:
. plainly
written after the event..
fall
of Jerusalem.

The myth of Osiris tells that he taught certain things and did certain things and no one disputes that the entire narrative It lies on the face of the case that no one man invented is myth.
1
See the Revised Version. In the previous pages we have traced a number of Christian myths to their pagan origins. Without professing to trace all the gospel myths of either sort. I have attempted a catalogue raisonne of a score or more of the former. like so many others of the same species. in which " Jesus " not of Nazareth figured for Paul as a mere crucified Messiah.
many
of
of the proofs that the gospel teachings. But the historic cult certainly also gathered up.
is
necessarily left for
other treatises. sociologically
1
considered. historically considered. But while this possibility cannot be decisively negated. into history. there may have coalesced various other doctrinal movements.
.
are
myths
of doctrine. Nazarite and anti-Nazarite." Round the early historic cult. Acts
xviii.
In the opening treatise I have given reasons for thus bringing into the category of myths such literary fictions as ascribe certain doctrine to a famous personage under conditions which are clearly unhistorical. of
. again. a study of
religious evolution in general entitles us to say that the historic cult
can conceivably have been evolved from the ancient Jesus-cult. thus giving a connected and summary view of those already analysed and of a number of others. in so far as they purport to be utterances of a wandering and teaching Jesus with twelve disciples. The full presentment of this theory.
What
is
here
undertaken is the final step in the preliminary clearing of the mythological ground. Apostles we have an early admission by Christists that a sect "knowing only the baptism of John" could speak "exactly" or in detail of "the things of Jesus.
. 26. roots in primitive And in the account of Apollos in the Acts of the nature-worship. which gradually conducts us from mythology. There remain
•
which the pagan origin is no less clearly demonstrable and there remain the mythic ascriptions of doctrine with which the other myths coalesced. which.
round
whose movement there might have gradually clustered the survivals of an ancient solar or other worship of a Babe Joshua son of Miriam. many documentary compositions and pragmatic and didactic fictions. a speechless sacrifice. and I have added some
a
number
of gospel
myths
of action or narrative. generation after generation.PREAMBLE
put to death for (perhaps anti-Judaic) teachings
285
now
lost
. which perhaps incorporated some actual utterances of several Jesuses of Messianic pretensions.

for instance.
many
process applied to the later stories also. Men are fain to believe. One must evidently reckon with a certain average incapacity to assimilate more than a modicum of new truth.
however. taking generations to accomplish. Routledge's
ed. comes of sheer failure to study the phenomena of comparative mythology. 1 was at pains to argue that the Massacre of the Innocents might well pass unnoticed by contemporary historians among the multitude of
Herod's barbarities when a candid glance at earlier forms of the same story might have made it clear to him that he was dealing with
. the Conception. 2
—
1
of the orthodox belief is the undisturbed condition of the minds of so many readers before the fact that all the stupendouscircumstances of the Nativity. and look only for
presents a parallel to others which survive.286
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
men
to be civilized.
2
History of the Jews. however.
The most astonishing aspect
. that one Moses invented the Ten Commandments.
we come
to a legendary personage
whose
cult survives.
Here the
clinging to person-
simply because of the closer emotional relation. by a survey of the
adjustments made in the past. as we have First men seek naturalistic seen. Much of the delay. the herald angels. that all of these doctrines were current before the period in question. p. Percy Gardner repeating once more the fallacious explanation. Dean Milman. which has imposed on so many of us. in order that" they shall be forgotten not only by the entire generation among whom they take place. every detail of the narrative in hand having the stamp of didactic fiction. The course of thought.
. and the Magi. 1899. Capacity may be slightly quickened. some men persist in framing formulas about " essential originality.
agriculture or vine culture or taught
When. that " an ass and the foal of an ass " represents a Greek misconception " an ass " as if Hebrews even in every of the Hebrew way of saying
a
common myth. however. At this stage the prodigies Testament remain unchallenged even for some who see of the New myth in those of the Old and only gradually is the tentative critical
. there
gradual psychological adjustments.
the majority. 247. based on no one historic
:
episode whatever
personality to
. or
is an instant recoil from such an admission.
alities is strongest. on the face of the narrative.
however. as Celsus would say. p.. explanations for prodigies in the Old Testament after a time some consent to see in such prodigies mere myths. whose later action implies entire oblivion alike of the Annunciation.
still
ascribing
human
mythical personages. 156. the Massacre. even after giving up supernaturalism.
So. we have such a candid and scholarly inquirer as Dr. 3 Exploratio Evangelica." though the personage to whom the originality is ascribed is but an abstraction from the very utterances thus put in his mouth. but by Mary and Joseph. occur. is by way of small concessions. in recent years. and that one Jesus invented the Golden Eule and ascended a mounShown tain to proclaim doctrines of forgiveness and non-resistance.

a priori and a posteriori. Baur argued. that Strauss's
at the story of
Bacchus crossing a marsh on two
—
—
asses. Eng. tr. it is by applying all the tests of traditionary error. And the documentary criticism which Baur began or reorganized turns out only to carry
rejecting
Strauss's process further.
1
But the way
which
See. perhaps who was moving on the true line of scientific inference. " is unhis. 3 Kritische Untersuchungen. 35. But the effect of the documentary analysis which Strauss failed to make is to leave us no grounds whatever for ascribing any teaching in particular to any one teacher called Jesus though it is historically possible. 43. 72-3. able as
Baur was incapable
still
—but negative
—
in the sense of leaving the question
open
:
that
is
to say. Zeller's reply Strauss and Benan. however. 2 By negative " he meant. Cp. 71-73. In this he was encouraged by his surviving presuppositions. and was meantime led to spend his powers on a philosophic explanation of his creed which has no historic value.
early Jesuists
Strauss clung to the view that while the
had little knowledge of the life of the founder they had trustworthy knowledge of many of his teachings. What is certain. p. Broadly speaking. The same objection was made to the methods of Christian apologists a century before in the Examen critique cles apologistes de la religion ehretienne. though he claimed to do so. but did not live to complete the long journey. that while Strauss offered grounds for
much. p.PEEAMBLE
day
life
287
lay under a special spell of verbal absurdity
—when a glance
and at the Greek sign or one of the signs for the constellation Cancer (an ass and its foal). 4 Strauss on this point took up a more scientific position. that we shall reach a just estimate of the historical value of the gospels. that there were several Jesuses who claimed to be Messiahs. is that the gospels are no less absolutely untrustworthy as accounts of any man's teaching than as accounts of any man's deeds.
1
it was." he tells us. would have shown him that he was dealing with a zodiacal myth.
—
—
torical. Kritische Untersuchungen iiber die kanonischen Evangelien. ascribed to Freret. " While everything mythic. 1847. he could consistently show no grounds for retaining anything. "Every unhistorical narrative."
4
3
This
is
the last
in
stage of a pragmatic definition of myth. reached only a negative result because it did not include a comparative criticism of the documents as such. Baur's position was that of an extremely sagacious critic the acutest of his time." he writes in reply to Baur in Das Leben Jesufiir das deutsche Volk bearbeitet
:
2
. pp. 1866. on the whole justly. pp.
not everything unhistorical
is
mythic. and not very unlikely. and by recognizing that myth formerly so-called is only one form of such error. because they gathered up both kinds of statement in the same way. not that the argument was unprofitable because it negated a popular belief an inept commonplace of which
analysis.

The psychology of all such error is substantially the same.
(Einleit. in which a religious see an element of their sacred origins. in which a religious community recognizes a component part of their sacred origin as being an absolute expression of constituent feelings and conceptions. if these insuperable problems be set aside. is a myth.
iii. As has already been argued. and short strings of maxims some
. he with open eye the mystery of the soul He said in the jubilee of sublime estimated the greatness of man " All of which is absolute myth. 214) makes a sad mess of this passage:— "Every historical narrative.
The
soul. nothing is gained by the distinction under notice. beyond convenience of descriptive arrangement. how shall we. because of its being an absolute expression of their constitutive feelings and ideas. Einleit. And who was Jesus ? A Nazarite ? And if there were no Twelve Seeing that Paul Apostles." The English translation (i.
added
Emerson
"
forcibly writes
that
Christianity " dwells with
noxious
exaggeration about the person of Jesus.
and he notes that ordinary Christian language
"paints a demigod as the Orientals or the Greeks would describe Yet Emerson himself had just been affirming Osiris or Apollo. § 25. the mythopoeic process is possible to the human mind in all periods. and the At the same time. the documentary analysis shows Resurrection. p. and is actively carried on to-day. § 14. with the arbitrary exception of such teachings
As against the
consists
as seem unedifying. Cambridge. the Temptation. which mainly in putting aside the miracles and accepting the narrative that is left. end : 3te Aufl. 1838. are just as mythical as the Virgin Birth. 159). In the same way the Johannine discourses What then is left? What did "Jesus " teach? fall to the ground. and. 1 Address to the Senior Class in Divinity College." he protests. us that Jesus was at first without cognomen there was no "of Nazareth " in the legend.
analysis
it
may
be well to show briefly the effect of the
scientific recognition of all the
forms of myth in the narrative.
unhistorical statements get to be believed. how can we consent to suppose that later Christists had any real information ? Nay. and on the other hand such prominent teachings as the Sermon on the Mount.
community
. as truly emotion.
Our
shows that on the one hand the Twelve Apostles.
sions
believed."
that "Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets. is a myth. who was there to report his doctrine ? knew naught of it. most of which are proper only to the initiates of a fixed cult.
later literary method of Renan and Arnold. however it may have arisen. I am divine
'
'
myth
as the other version.
knows no persons
1
". when delivered from the spell of customary acquiescence. end.288
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
come
to be drawn.'" The principle had been put by Strauss in the first Leben Jesu. and unhistorical concluis just the way in which myths got to be and pragmatized.
to. continue to believe that any man ever made a popular movement by enouncing cryptic parables.
He saw
Alone in all history. "no matter how it arose.

The writings of his immediate followers show a fulness and ripeness of spiritual feeling and knowledge. and are utterly beyond the acceptance of any unselected populace in any age ?
One
realizes afresh the
problem. then. 242-6) will bear no analysis. p> 174#
U
." Such language implicitly affirms that.
others. 172.—
PREAMBLE
of
289
which represent the last stretch of self-abnegating ethic for brooding men. his boundless love for men. Yet imme"the life of the Master is not. Dr. even the writings of Isaiah -and Plato. Gardner seems to me more arbitrary than ever. And yet even in the very act of affirming this.
normal difficulty in even recognizing the turns to the notable work of Dr. His differentiation between the Synoptics and John (pp. recoverable beyond a certain point. or by passing by a passage in which. to the facts of the visible world.
Yet he tacitly founds with absolute confidence on certain Dr. above all things. 4 Exploratio. and he left us men. Percy Gardner. and has ignored Baur's reminder
this is not
is
That
oversight. we can rely on the genuineness of the logia. has only repeated with a difference the proceto
of historical
dures of
Strauss.
3
Renan and Arnold. 119. in an objective sense. evidence to know on which of the Jesuine or apostolic sayings the thesis is founded. It marks at some points an advance on even the positions
it
down sound caveats. seem superficial and imperfect. p." with " boundless love for men. and why those sayings in particular are held
:
1
cited. since only by a careful selection of passages can we frame the conventional
frequently lays
diately after thus stipulating that
effigy of a
Hatch. his joyful acceptance of poverty and self-denial." 1 Dr. He was fond of appealing. while setting himself the highest standards method. He found us children in all that regards the hidden life.
3
j^. again. however mythical be the gospel narratives. Gardner. and
Jesus of " gentle spirit."
Our explorer even expressly excludes certain Jesuine dicta as obviously
mythical. Gardner shows us that he has tacitly eliminated many logia for his purpose.
2
In his Historic View of the New Testament (1901) Dr. From that time onward (!) men in Christian countries seem to
have gained new faculties
of spiritual observation
"4
we want
Work
For such an affirmation we want. Gardner affirms that Francis of Assisi " was like the Founder of Christianity in his gentle spirit. p. he pairs
" The fact is that the life of Jesus was the occasion and the cause of an enormous development of the spiritual faculties and perceptions of men. which makes the best of previous religious literature.
of Dr.
when one
above cited. like Jesus.
made with Emerson
:
quite clear
done in a merely incidental way. and in hearty sympathy with life in all 2 its forms.

pp. which really throws back the whole discussion. that we find even a trained Naturalist. and which here
or there
But
must
it
has not in fact been anticipated. no explanahe fulminates his formula as did Emerson. to a pre-scientific level.
all. must in time either surrender unconditionally to the myth or
follow reason.
.
the mythic Jesus in the
name
of the historic
Before Dr. What Dr.
whether
fancy or of thought. It may well be that even Dr. Only. 1894. taking for granted the conventional " biographical
1
Letter to Mr.
cited in the latter's Claims of Christianity. Gardner offers no justification."
290
to be genuine. 30-31. we must dispose effectually of the myths of action before we attempt to estimate the evidence for the doctrine. and there an end. and the present
. So little impression has been made on the general mind hitherto by the demonstration of
mythical elements in the gospels.
can but repeat with insistence and with evidence is as essentially a myth as the wonderworking demigod. there need surely be no more hesitation over such trifles as human Parthenogenesis and
raising the dead.
avowed that " There is little in the ethics of Christianity which the human mind may not reach by its natural powers.
If the appari-
tion of one teacher could thus suddenly bestow subtlety of insight
on a whole world formerly devoid of it.
It ought not to be necessary at this stage of thought to refute such a theory of psychological catastrophism. Lilly. with the claim that
no verdict can be adequate which does not face it.
lie
The
scientific solution
in
a
fuller
presentation of the proof that neither the
of feeling or of
is
hypothetic Jesus of the gospels nor his immediate followers represented
any rare
originality." will not suffice merely to counter authority with authority. at this particular
point.
W. Gardner thus apotheosized method.
men
continue to argue the matter at
It
criticism can forever sit thus
between the two stools of psychological habit and judicial method. tion
:
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
But Dr. in the very act of applying mythological science to the
Christian case. the
foremost of the cultured and reasoning believers of the century. Gardner's measure of defection from
the
Myth
of
will take long to
win acceptance. raising to manhood in one generation a humanity which had remained childlike through five thousand years of religious speculation.
indictif
ment
it
much
longer
still
but I cannot conceive that.
A
conspectus of that evidence
now
submitted.
1
even where the latter has a special weight. Newman. Gardner describes is but an intellectual
I
Meantime
that the teaching demigod
and psychological miracle
:
a breach of
all
evolution.
S.

instead of serving as a rock foundation for his application of Dr. 3.
Rock of solid historical fact we may well be found our argument in this volume." which even some supernaturalist critics have admitted to be an unhistorical 2 addition.
2
Against Celsus. for which there is no support in Luke or John.
worshipped by a
group of fellow
peasants
who had once known him
to
as Jesus the son of the carpenter. nobody can accuse us of crude and gross Euhemerism. Allen's Euhemerism (or Evemerism. Grant Allen.
is
really a hindrance to even that
So little critical heed has he given to the problem that he actually commits himself to the detail of "the carpenter. Frazer's theorem of the Vegetation-Cult into connection with the Christian doctrine of
crucifixion
and salvation
—a
step not previously ventured on in any
in Freethought journals.
solution.
vi.
the ground. I will not call Mr." And it is after this affirmation that Mr. seeing that for Origen the reading of Mark vi. then. and perhaps
Man
recently deceased.PEEAMBLE
291
The late Mr. Allen sets out with the dogmatic decision that the Gospel
it
English book. respected. as the word ought to be written in English) crude and gross but I do maintain that he has fallen into Evemerism. " at the
moment when we
first
catch a glimpse of
little
him
in
the writings of his followers. and can only mean. xiii. 55.
end. though
had been made
Jesus was. 36. does the excellent practical service of bringing Dr. are an attempt to clear
. in the sense of an unwarranted assumption.
understand how solid truth can be crude and Euhemerism.
. which means. was not canonical.
p. data. and that his assumption. which makes Jesus himself a carpenter. in his Evolution of the Idea of God. 16. Naturalism must found itself in a more scientific fashion than this if it is to hold its own against the eternal assault of credulity and organized ecclesiasticism.
It is difficult to
gross
. and that there remains only the phrase in Matt. Here. a
reverenced. Allen reaches the conclusion that all the salient items in the Jesus-saga are but parts of the once universal rite of the God-Man sacrificed to renew
that unassailable
On
content
'
the
life of
vegetation.
1
Work cited.' Or rather the crude and gross Euhemerism is here known to represent the solid truth. Both alike are excluded from the "Primitive Gospel " even by the school of Weiss and the rationalistic criticism which dismisses Mary and Joseph as alike mythical must needs dismiss the myth of Joseph's avocation. 1 Yet Mr. The following studies. at least.
Frazer's theory to the Christ cult. the blundering application of a false mythological theory to a given problem of religious origins.

Inscr.
cited
v. 68 sq. § 9. the plain probability
. 1850. 292
Aristotle. If.
Indeed. Athene and Artemis and Perse3 phone. x. but are already present in Judseo-Christianity. The Progress of the Intellect. the Virgin-Mother myth is universal
—
a
more
familiar usage. Judaism was to develop its slowly-formed Saviour-myth at all. 19. at times received the title of mother. § 19.
1 Cp. Pausanias. The so-called prophecy of Isaiah (vii.g.
the mythical character of the birth-legend is recognized by consent to apply rational tests to the gospels.
.FIRST DIVISION
§ 1. rnythologising ideas are not first assimilated in the later Pagan-Christianity. but the converse was
Pagan world. Compare the story of Delilah and Samson's hair with that of the hair of Nisus. 3.
p. of a mortal mother supernaturally impregnated. Corp.
in
2
Paganism. Grcec.
2
3 4
See above. cut off by his daughter. ii. but
note
how
emphatically
belonged to the surrounding
sources. it could scarcely avoid the datum that he be born of a VirginMother that is. by Clement of Alexandria. Boeckh. If that be lost
all
THOUGH
who
sight of. as nearly all male Gods were at times termed beneficent.: " We see here also that a characteristic pagan idea is carried over to Jesus in Judaeo-Christianity The gentilising. i. whatever might be the cruelty of their supposed deeds. 1903. and as such termed a virgin by way of adoring flattery. 220. indeed. 168. i.
:
MYTHS OF ACTION
The Virgin Birth. R. 6." To this it should be added that many Greek myths root in old Semitic lore equally with Hebraic myths— e. Strabo. 14) could never have been read as an announcement of a long-distant Parthenogenesis by the most insane Talmudism had not the myth of Virgin-birth constantly obtruded itself from the Pagan side. It was perhaps in the same spirit that those Goddesses who were specially distinguished as virgin. Mackay. 3993. Protrept. or in that the mother too was a Goddess. Paus.
failed to
1
Strauss
saw the
it
birth-story to be
myth. Cp. as
. 3. 235. either in respect of the mother being a mortal while the father was a God.
is
that the
virginal status of
Athene in particular is late that she was primarily a normal Mother-Goddess and that her virginity is an ascription 4 arising out of the growth of poetico-religious feeling. the conditions of the composition of the gospels cannot be
properly realized. Gunkel. the myths of Samson and Herakles. and certainly has no recognized place in orthodox Judaism before the Jesuist period. Zum religionsgeschichtlichen Verstdndnis des neuen Testaments. seeing there rather analogies than Now. Thus. p. All the Saviour-Gods of Paganism were so reputed. W. it remains important to keep in mind the nature and extent of the documentary proof that the myth is borrowed from Paganism.

we saw. the God-
See refs. so that the child
was
virgin-born. wife of Zeus and Queen of Heaven Cybele. who. Lucian. De A bstinentia. and was fabled to have been deflowered in the very womb 2 of her own mother. .
Athene. and wife (and in a late version the mother) of Osiris. Isis and Osiris.
1
:
ii. where she
Goddess. i. 8
children. Cp. ii. again.
293
above noted. 547. She is Virgin as identified with Athene and Persephone. or the True Christianity.
Roman. The myth.
7
An element
God born
stories of
of
mystification
has
been
introduced into the
is
discussion by the plea that only in the gospel story
of a virgin
a Saviour-
mother without any male congress. p. ii. was fabled to every year. is thus evidently pre-Christian. De Errore. Grote (ed. was. equates with both Ceres
were all " Virgin "* as much as Isis.
and Venus
herself. and of Persephone. It is true that Diogenes wrote in the second or third century " after Christ " but for this story he cites (1 ) Speusippus.
.
Earth. b. i. c. Cicero. become a virgin anew All of these Goddesses in turn became associated with the Virgo Coelestis. with other ancient figures of fruit-holding Goddesses. for instance. and
. 186. Demeter. 12.
leaf-bearer. mother of Apollo and Artemis. "Comparative Religion and the Historic Christ. which likewise belongs to Plato's generation. p.
who was
at once sister
'
'*." styled ayvrjs. De nat.
. 7 Diogenes Laertius.
De
. and is only a transference of the Child-God from one Goddess-Mother to another. De Sacrificiis. 2 Plutarch. ii. even in Homer. as such. 62. pure. Messianic "branch. as well as Kovpocf>6po<s. 6 Iliad. the former being warned in a dream by
—the
Apollo. above. 1909. The Celt. p. borne by Mother
—
In the special machinery of the Joseph and Mary myth. Leto." and x^-ovfap an ^ wp-qcftopos. Nor is it confined to Europe even in relation to philosophers. deor.
nat. 52) notes the "phantom of maternity" in this myth. iii. 24. but does not give due weight to the traces of primordial motherhood in Athene's cult. whose Funeral Banquet of Plato was extant (2) Clearchus' Panegyric on Plato.
again
6
is
no longer the Mother-
is
the nurse of the divine Erechtheus. with her extended 4 branch or ear of corn. the frontispiece to Volney's Ruins of Empires. Id. for we find it applied to Confucius. Cp. the Earth-Mother. the Virgin of the Zodiacal sphere. there being no trace of it in the Homeridian hymn but it is certainly pre-Christian. c. 8 See in the collection of lectures. the kernel of the myth of Mother Eve and her apple. warning in a dream and the abstention of the husband we have a simple duplication of the story of the relations of the father and mother of Plato. 1889.
it
In the
Gods begetting mortal
is
contended. 3 the Maiden. See above. 6 the Saxon. that of the Rev. 42. note 13. and (3) Anaxilides' History of Philosophers. no doubt. the nephew of Plato. and dfjLa\Xo<]>6pos. deor. as regards Plato. § 1. and the plate in Ernest Bunsen's Islam. cc. Firniicus. who. iv Porphyry. Religion and the Modern World. 27. And Dionysos in particular came to figure indifferently as son of Demeter. the fruit-bearer. as to Buddha. 5 For the figure of this Virgin as represented in the ancient Zodiacs and constellation maps see. the
and Vesta
. Here. the corn-bearer.
4
Cicero. besides lending herself to the Jewish "prophecy" of the 5 Demeter was Kap7ro4>6pos." pp. Canon McCulloch. 321. and the Latin inscription in Wright. 4th ed. 3 The association of Dionysos with Demeter is relatively late. the Mother. the 32. c. Here. the "mother of the Gods". the child-bearer.THE VIEGIN BIETH
. 1888. the sheaf-bearer. 130-137. 168.

Hartland's Primitive Paternity (Nutt. 1894. 42-43. 253-4. whose 5 fruit was the Sun.
Cp. an admirably 4 Id. by treading on a holy 3 spot. is cancelled by the simple notation. by wind. And this myth was but a development of more primitive ideas such as that
strictly
—
—
The Legend of Perseus. i. iii." Id. xiii. p. but there is evidence that in our own day there exist whole tribes for whom
spiritual birth " is
north-central Australia
believe that the child
an every-day notion. whereas the Gospel " spiritually " begotten. and that the state of ignorance as to the law of procreation seen now in certain Australian tribes " was probably once the state of other races and indeed of all humanity. by a shadow. I. Spencer and Gillen. and so forth alternates with the notion of magical forces merely promoting normal impregnation.
and
tells of
when
primitive
1
certain notion as to the bisexual procreation of his children. 145.
. ed. The Nortliem Tribes of Central Australia. pp. by a wish. by fruits. by fire. 1904. by divine breath. p. and O. 2 vols.
They have no
idea of
2
procreation as being directly associated with sexual intercourse. we are entitled to say that the belief in non-sexual birth by re-incarnation of "spirits" has been widespread. and that sexual intercourse has nothing of necessity to do with procreation. note.. which is at best a
mere sophistication. Hartland
in
and
testimony since collected in
many
fields is sufficient to raise it to
the level of an anthropological truth. but of the frequent
faith
of
primitive
peoples in non-physical impregnation. c. learned and comprehensive survey of the whole problem. Cp. 606. Cp. 3 See ch. Wilkinson. 156. 9.
a time
from being a
late product of
So far " spiritual " thought. Ancient Egyptians.
theorem to this
effect
was
set forth
by Mr. and whose robe no male had raised." 4 Given this. On the plane of ancient theosophy. and
firmly believe that children can be born without this taking place. 5 Plutarch. 1910).
man had no A
1894
. "Mr. Of the existing natives of we learn that " one and all in these tribes
is
the direct result of the entrance into the
spirit
mother
of
an ancestral
individual. by eating of magical fish. Not only is the class of wonder-births found to be ubiquitous and innumerable.
294
father
is
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
is
Jesus
understood as procreating sexually. 1878. we are bound to see in the birth-myths of classic antiquity only one of a hundred survivals of primeval notions in "higher" religious systems.
p. the idea of a mystical birth was made familiar to the Mediterranean peoples by the scroll of the Virgin-Mother-Goddess at Sais. 162. But this plea. pref
1
2
150. the idea of
non-sexual procreation as by the sun. at somewhat higher levels of civilization. 330. i of Mr. vol. not only of pagan myths in which the virgin-mother is expressly represented as
being symbolically or mystically impregnated. i. Roth's latest work in Queensland shows clearly that the idea of spirit children entering women. the concept is
really primordial."
And
though. is a very widespread belief among the Australian aborigines.

Myths and Songs of the South Pacific. M.
—
—
cases thought about the gospel story
. element of the normal barbarian notion of divine fatherhood (present in Gen. and Roth are in perfect harmony with his own main thesis. 4). Among God-bearers.very-beginning.—
THE VIEGIN BIETH
295
concerning the Polynesian First Mother. is miraculously impregnated
by a pomegranate the Mexican Coatlicue. 12. iii. Gillen. 326-331 Ovid. 5 and even Here is described as by the touch of a ball of feathers going far away from Zeus and men to conceive and bear Typhon 6 or Dionysos or Hephaistos. Vari. of course impossible to tell how the early orthodox Christians in all
. 4-8. que de la haute et pure antiquite grecque. " the. 414." Lactantius asks " If it is known to all that certain animals are accustomed to conceive by the wind and the breeze. the river-nymph Nana. Saintyves. 413.
but there was in
all
likelihood
idea between the Ebionite belief in the simple natural 7 birth of Jesus and anything like a rigorously " spiritual " view. 4 Arnobius. bien entendu. Fasti.
Above.
5
. 6. vii. bien plus sensuel que ce qu'on appelle le materialisme antique je ne parle. inasmuch as in the Johannine writings Jesus is It is repeatedly proclaimed the " only-begotten Son " of the deity.Rev. descending from heaven. again. 17. Adv. iv. 1908. Babylonian Influence on the Bible. pp. 3-6. v. v. Hymn to Apollo.
entirely apart from
case would be supposed to be out of the question.
:
.
:
—
:
. Gentes.
have
"
no father whatever. It is arguable. that the belief in spirit-conception among certain tribes may have displaced or overridden the knowledge of fatherhood seen to exist among other tribes of the same race or region. introd.
. S. mother of Huitzilopochtli. p." who makes her children by plucking pieces out of her sides. 7 I do not attach much weight to many of the frequent and facile generalizations of Renan on ancient history (his doctrine of Semitic monotheism has been a mere stumblingblock to historic science) but it may be worth while in this connection to consider two " C'est par un grave malentendu que Ton adresse a l'antiquite le of his utterances reproche de materialisme. Dr."
1
The
religious usage of prayer to deities to grant offspring. 2 Cp. chose the holy Virgin. or Ares Thus even the notion of a " spiritual " Parthenogenesis is common to pagan and strict or a And in the Christian case we have still an Christian thought.
4
.
On
divine generative force figures in the Babylonian
myth
of the creation.
would develop
in all directions the belief in miraculous impregnations.
. however. The Australians and the Hebrews alike believed that sex intercourse is subsidiary to "spirit" action the former simply regard it as unessential. 1876. in which Tiamat (Chaos.
in ritual. 1862. Horn. mother of Attis.
Christian
myths
of
normal fatherhood. Les vierges meres et les naissances miraculeuses. After telling how the Holy Spirit. Spencer. citing Timotheus Pausanias. elle est humaine": "Le spiritualisme Chretien est. Saintyves refuses to accept the record of the ignorance of many [in large measure isolated] Australian aborigines as to the law of procreation. ed. The denial is quite unwarranted and the facts recorded by Messrs. Div. 1899. Sic. vi. 231-258 Diod.
. pp. a quasi-abstract notion of
prehistoric times. Inst. L'antiquite n'est ni materialiste ni spiritualiste. 171. Palmer. the Abyss) is feminine." On the topic in the text compare Lactantius. pp. 927. 3 Cp.) The word "sensuel" is of course not to be taken in the aggravated meaning of "sensualist. 9. " cujus utero se insimiaret.
adapted in Genesis. which in the terms of the 2 Pagan and the kind are thus alike inferribly survivals from
the other hand. These. In
a
medium
1 Gill. Theogony. P. why should any one think it wonderful when we say that a
6
. au fond. 3 and the Divine Spirit or Wind hovers above." (fitudes d'histoire religieuse. A. 66 Hesiod.

is perhaps still the least studied of the problems surrounding our inquiry.
. though Lactantius had evidently met with doubters.
like
McCulloch. will probably not now be denied by any one who will examine the old celestial globe in connection with Greek and Christian mythology. Suffice it that the potent influence of mythopceic astrology surrounds the birth legend. iii. completes the proof that the virgin-birth myth is on the normal plane of pagan speculation. Early in January the Egyptians celebrated " the Coming of Isis out of Phoenicia.
. 573. adding that " they have arisen from a stage of thought in which a purely material view of the universe was held. in which the Virgin faces the husbandman. and of the Polynesian and Mexican mythology. p. Eve. If he insists that the ancients thought of the generating wind as " physical. he may be invited to explain how the Hebrews and Christians conceived the "Holy Spirit" or Pneuma. affirms that in heathen of virgin-birth "we find that the mother is nearly always already married. and O.
A
myths
(
. whether on the male or the female view of its 3 See above. and the Sign of Capricorn is the sun's habitation at the winter solstice.
and constellation lore though raised over a century ago by Dupuis and Volney.
§ 1. and underlies the myths of Astraea. That the Virgo Cmlestis goes back to early Akkadian astronomy that the figure determines in part the legend and ritual of many Goddesses of Vegetation. affirm the historicity of the miraculous Nativity in face not only of its absence from the second and fourth gospels.und Volkerkunde. it is neither possible nor necessary to determine in this connection." and has written a manual on the subject. But whether the ancient rustic usages which in the East parallel the early Christian ritual-play of the birth of the God-Child in a stable were derived from the imagery of the celestial vault.
any
reflection
any form of the belief has pagan precedent and a little might bring home even to the sincere believer the signi." 2 from which it appears that 3 Isis was supposed to make a journey either to bring forth Horos or
of the influence of zodiacal
The question
on ancient
religion. and Mary and that the rising of the constellation Virgo at midnight at the beginning of the solstitial year has a plain bearing on the birth story. 1905. Bartels. ed.
unknown
Canon
the Pauline epistles. yet he appears to ignore alike the ideas of the Australian aborigines in this connection. Das Weib in der Natur.
1
1860. As to survivals of Christian belief in spiritual paternity see Ploss." because Zephyrus figured as a male. No less significant is the fact that most of the few details given of the Virgin-Mother in the gospels are in striking correspondence with Pagan myths. but of
the absolute silence of the epistles on the theme. are outside of
critical discussion.
ficance of the fact that the gospel story
to the writers
of
is
1
a late accretion.
274)
virgin was impregnated by the Spirit of God?" The mirabile dictu of Virgil (Georg.
Those who. Miilhause. 50. c. i.296
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
case. Canon McCulloch (as above cited).
professional apologist. For older German notions see E. and shapes it jointly with the religious presuppositions of Jews and Gentiles. personality. 187. Themis." "nor do the tales hint that ordinary paternity is not involved". Die Urreligion des
deutschen Volkes. and in which conception through other than physical means was undreamt-of. I. 2 piutarch." Canon McCulloch is by way of being a student of "Comparative Religion.

Griech.
i. The Miriam of Exodus is no more historical than Moses like him and Joshua. having "died a virgin. iii. 1906: Prof. Whittaker.
to
assume that the mother
of the " real "
Jesus was
nevertheless one Mary (Miriam).
The Mythic Maries. As to the problem of a pre-Christian Jesus cp. the wife of Joseph. the stories of iEsculapius and Apollonius of Tyana. x. p. the name appears in the East as Maya. raises an irremovable surmise that a Mary the Mother of Jesus may have been worshipped in Syria long before our era. Yet again. T. Die Christusmythe. who has the same father. For this there is the double reason that Mary. The whole birth-story being indisputably late and the whole action mythic. Der vorchristliche Jesus. The Origins of Christianity. Maya and Buddha. Drews. i.
. 325. 189-90. The Return from Ilium . § 10.
Preller. the slain "Lord" of the great Syrian cult. Dr. Christ and Krishna.Star. 2 History it cannot be. Maia is the daughter of 5 6 Atlas. Mythologically. and 7 who. II. ft 5 Apollodoros. Pt.
following Hesychius. as Mary goes into Egypt. or Miriam. x. 6 Pausanias viii. 7 Id. 27 Grant Allen. For this assumption there is no justification. 2te Aufl.
Myth. But the bringing-forth of the God-child while " on a journey " is an item common to a dozen
—
myths. p. has for mother Maia.
359. is Myrrha and Myrrha in one of her myths is the weeping tree from which the babe Adonis is born. she is to be reckoned an ancient deity Evemerized and the Persian tradition that she was the mother of 3 Joshua ( = Jesus). B. the Greek Logos. Evolution of the Idea of God. 99. 1909. 1. Maira is identified with the Dog. as those of Mandane and Cyrus. 61.
—
§ 2. W." was seen by Odysseus in Hades. citing the lost poem.
.
. 2. pp. In one myth. 2nd ed. Latona and Apollo. taken in connection with the mythical aspects of both.
Odyssey. 1897. 3 Above. ch. See above.:
THE MYTHIC MAEIES
297
after the birth. 1909. 30.
. Pagan Christs. p. and the probable basis of that of Hagar and Ishmael and the peculiar motive of the taxpaying is derived either from the Hindu legend of Krishna or and as is more probable from a cognate Asiatic myth. Again. Smith.
c. pp. A.
pre-Christian
*
. The mother of Adonis. whose name has further connections with Mary. thus doubling with Maira. 48. Hermes. 389.
2 Id. which is the 8 star of Isis.
s
xi. the Virgin-Mother of Buddha and it is remarkable that according to a Jewish legend the name of the Egyptian princess who found the babe
. 27. 187-8.
Cp. p. after recognizing the
is
myth
of the
Virgin-Birth.
The
first
step of criticism. 4 It is not possible from the existing data to connect historically such a cult with its congeners but the mere analogy of names and epithets goes far. see also the scholiast on
1
4
.
and
O. Plutarch.
I. was already a mythic name for both Jews and Gentiles. the name is also to be presumed mythical.

10 Bahr. ii. cc. R. Diod. actually 5 served as a Greek form of the name Joshua or Jesous and Jasion. I. In the gospels we have Mary the Magdalene that is. xxi. " Above. viii. of Ancient Egypt. note. 67a. 1680. 2 And as Meri meant " beloved. Essai sur I'histoire et la geographie de la Palestine.V. not biography. O. one of the most
Jasius or Jasion
. i. Egypt under the Pharaohs. who in one story is the founder of the famous Samothrakian 6 mysteries. cap. 1674. it is of some though minor interest to recall that Demeter is associated in early Greek mythology with one
Moses was Merris. i. Mackay. v. . 6 preller.
8 Cp. 12 Plutarch. v. and O. one of the daughters of Eamses II. note. 101). 125. SymboliJc des mosaischen Cultus. 53. 1867. Magdala (ed. But Magdala at most simply means a tower or "high place" (the same root yielding the various senses of
15
14 nurse. was named Meri. 9 Porphyry.298
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
1
still further thickened by the fact monuments. 1. Hesychius. is in the ordinary myth slain by Zeus. 324.
1
2
Ramses
7
Mackay. part iii. Reland. 2 (ed. p." and the name was at times given to men.
we
learn from the
not as mother. ii. 1st ed.v.
Mary "the
part of a hair-dresser. Lightfoot. which Jesus in 16 one text visits. Selden (De Diis Syris. Theogony. 404. Sic. xv. tr." the field of mythic speculation is wide. of the supposed place Magdala. i. Hist. 884). Ammas. 729)." Now.
—
3
the pre-Christian Jesus
important details of the confused legend in the Talmud concerning Ben Pandira. Dictionary of the Targumim. ix. u and Isis was alternately and Artemis were styled 12 styled "the nurse" and "the mother. Sabb. Horcs Hebraicce : in Luc. Cp. It is noteworthy that II. 16. 1. and the Midrashic Literature. we know. Eng. or otherwise of Minos. 667. w Plutarch. i. p. Sanh. 3 Odyssey. 16 Matt. 168. citing the Hagigah. But the partial parallel of his name is of less importance than the possible parallel of his mythic relation to the Goddess Mother.v. Griech. b."
it
—
Eusebius. 1888. 436. Myth. besides being used in the phrase beloved of the Gods. both Demeter " child-rearers ". but as lover. 213a. iv." or " the hair-dresser. 12 Ant. 49. 15. 56. Palestina Ulustrata. TJie Progress of the Intellect. ed. i. 104b—earlier edd. had Semitic blood in him. In the matter of names. s. Hesiod. Ser Grcec. 117. v. De Abstinentia. Prceparatio Evangelica. 8 Thus Maia stands for "the nurse" 9 10 (rpo<f>6s) Mylitta means "the child-bearing one". and introduced into Egypt the Semitic institution of the harem. citing Artapanus. and O. 39. Rawlinson. I.
p. Synt. is that the mother is in one place named Miriam Magdala.
. A. 969. 13 Cp. 319-320. 182) derives Ammas from the Semitic Aymma = mother. p. le Ptie." or that becomes one of her epithets. Derenbourg. 4b. 4 Cp. who is conjoined with Ben 13 Stada. 1714. p. Talmud.27 (Migne. as
cited. Mtiller. Dorians. cited by K. 7 In many if not all of the cults in which there figures a nursing mother it is found that either her name signifies " the nurse. 471. 48. and the fact that he had a shrine in every Pelasgic settlement. p. ii. s.
as
The
plot is
that. iii. W. s Josephus. Brugsch. 4 Jason.
14 Jastrow. he being the son of Zeus and Electra.
As Isis too plays the seems clear that we are dealing here also with myth. ii. c.

Eng. baldly describing her had seven devils cast out of her by Jesus. 1. has underlain the pseudo-historical tale Talmudic reference.
. and as the lover who leaves her. stamps the whole Goddess-worship of the pre-classic " Minoan " civilization of the This dual relation. is presumptively an echo of a mythic tradition.
happens. instead of being a fiction based on the scanty data in the gospels. there
before alluded to. is probably cognate with the Evemerized Miriam of the Mosaic myth. Cp. and Dionysos.THE MYTHIC MAKIES
11
'
. and hair-dressing") and in the revised text Magdala gives way to Magadan. Adonis. is equally remote
. which may be the real source of the gospel allusions. Horos. 33. 1 Mary the Magdalene. 23.
as having
The interpolated text in Luke (viii. is fructified by the grain she herself produces.
gospels. the mother and the consort being
2
at
times
identified. could not admit of having sex relations with women
at a time when on all hands was outfacing phallicism and any myth representing the God as
. the friendship with
a "Mary" points towards some old myth in which a Palestinian God. who also is morally possessed by devils. In Jewry the profession of hair-dressing seems to have been identified with that of
. as
it
1 Wars.
hetaira
—the
as
character ultimately ascribed in Christian legend to
Mary
the Magdalene. 1897. Cox. that of one of the finders of the risen
Lord. finally. thus disappearing entirely from the There is no documentary trace of it save as a citadel gospels. tr. Maria the Magdalene. who in post-evangelical myth becomes a penitent harlot. 2). and again as the lover of the Night or the Twilight.
gospels a purely mythical part. 96-97. Mythology of the Aryan Nations. and the else. xviii.
299
nursing "= rearing. p. Osiris. perhaps named Yeschu or Joshua. It was equally natural to picture him as born of the Dawn. The story of OMipus marrying his mother Jocasta was thus mythically originated. 3 One mythic source of this double relation lies in the conception of the Sun-God s connection with the Goddesses of Dawn and Twilight. 104. figures in the changing a natural fluctuarelations of lover and son towards a mythic Mary tion in early theosophy. all of whom are connected with Mother-Goddesses and either a consort
—
or a female double. plays in the so named by Josephus. Attis. Again. Antiq.
The
coming into existence
asceticism
a religious principle
sexualism. But the dual relation in the old " Minoan " worship arose probably in a simpler way.
though in the fourth gospel. he could as easily be figured as born of the Night. 25.
where he
is
humanly and
attractively pictured as the tender friend of
is
the sisters of Lazarus. Mother Earth For another explanation see Wiedemann.
. xi.
from history but it points towards the probable mythic solution. and is Something expressly punished for her sin before being forgiven. pp. and one which occurs with a difference in the myths of Mithra. Religion of the Ancient Egyptians. 241-8 Manual of Mythology.
also left
open the unpleasant problem
Even
in this case. xiii. evidently. pp. however.

recall the two Maries of the Christian legend. in which the Nature. 467. De natura deorum. i. 9 That lament was supposed to be made at the spring equinox. Ancient Legends of Boman History. Cp. 18)— a parallel to the function of John in the Christian story. and in another with Horos) when he has been dismembered by the Titans. mourning for her child slain and at both of those points we have for the legend those most decisive of all origins. Diodorus. she has two typic of the child-bearer and that of the Mater Dolorosa. And the solution in the case of the Jesus myth becomes pretty clear when we come to the story of the Eesurrection. xix. in yet another Apollo does it by order of Zeus (Clem. 7 Arnobius. pp. and in the saga which makes Demeter the mother of Dionysos it is she who brings together the mangled limbs of the
part. (Cp. 1907. and Macrobius (Sat. See Ettore Pais. the character of the " mother of the Gods " and her " love without passion for Attis " (so Julian the popular view was different. 53. ritual and art. 38. 7 vii. taken as a whole. Diodorus. 1906. p. goes on to explain that it means the earth (the mother) mourning during winter for the loss of the sun. 343. iii. Lucian.
mythic
characters
—that
. Burrows.
(as Isis in one story does with Osiris. 6 Hesiod. In the myths of Venus and Adonis. as last cited. one the mother. As at the beginning.) In the myth of Cybele and Attis. Be SacriUciis. with a difference. ii. Theog. xiv. so at the end of the story. v. ii. where8 after she bears him again. the time of
ritual lamentation
Osiris
—a
R. M. Ishtar and Tammuz. 8 Diodorus. It is clear from Lucian's account that she combined many Goddess-attributes. who is variously the daughter. p. i. Eng. iii. Etudes d'histoire religieuse. again. 11. the sister. 62.300
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
is
And we find it yet again. describing the image of the mourning Goddess at Mount Libanus. In another version the Mother Goddess Rhea performs the function (Cornutus.
. and the wife of 2 Faunus. Adversus Gentes. 114. Cybele and Attis. c.Goddess
the dominant figure. v. vol. 4 In one version of the Aphrodite and Adonis myth Adonis is a child given by Aphrodite in a chest into the charge of Persephone (Apollodoros. whom their 6 sire Kronos had devoured. iii. trans. the other the penitent devotee.
1
In the gospels. 4). 7). 113-120. In the cult of Attis the weeping of the Great Mother over the mutilated body of the youth is a ceremonial 7 feature. 5 and there is a rather remarkable anticipation of the inconsolable " Rachel weeping for her children " in Hesiod's account of Ehea (Cybele) possessed by a grief not to be forgotten " because of her children. 9 Records of the Past. Alex. b. 13. 4th ed. 20). 57. No less general than the figure of the child-suckling Goddess was the conception of a mourning Goddess. or Dolorous Mother. 5 Grote and Renan apply the term to her: History of Greece. Protrept. 73-74. And most noteworthy of all is the
young God
coincidence of the mourning of the two or more Maries with the
of the " divine sisters " Isis and Nephthys for customary funeral service with the Egyptians. 30). iii. The Discoveries in Crete. pp. Mary plays a
iEgean. wailing for Persephone. while Demeter. we have at first sight a non-maternal 3 but in another view a maternal 4 mourning. AmmianusMarcellinus. i. according to Arnobius.
1
2
3
:
. Diodorus. in the myth of the Latin Bona Dea. 59. was for the Greeks pre-eminently the Mater Dolorosa.

The Mary-myth thus grew up from two separate roots. we have
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. On the
. 2. as Goddesses of Birth and Death.story had become current.
. leader (and Arbiter) 2 But on the of the Fates. 24 Plutarch.
Of these variations the orthodox explanation is the lapse of memory on the part of the chroniclers a mere evasion of the problem. " Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the less and Joses " are accompanied by Salome (xv. naturally figured in many artistic Concerning them we know presentations of religious death scenes. not at
Joses.
face of the case
mourning
figures are the
of
more
likely sources of the
Christian myth-item. where we have " Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. there are
weighty reasons for believing that the Christian legend was first set 1 forth in a dramatic worship. xxvii.
—
represented in pictures or sculpture.
ancient ritual supports the view
. put as only two
—
there being. Moiragetes. they were at Apollo times. pp. l). as with Zeus elsewhere.
What we
already
know
of
and. and Mary Magdalene. 10). figures in a ritual lamentation
1
2
See above. 56.
E
.
301
the mythic crucifixion and it is plain that the gospel story has been manipulated on some such basis. again (xxiv.
The crowd
are represented as following the
women who in all the accounts God from Galilee would on this
IT. x. that. Part at Delphi. Cp. the inference is that the narratives of the part played by the women at the resurrection were framed before the birth. as
we have
seen. Pausanias.
. c. In view of all the data. who dispute as to whether she was simply the whilom Virgin and the difficulty is not helped by verse 61. 25) we have Jesus' mother (not named) and her sister Mary the (wife?) of Clopas.
the cross.
More complicated
still
does the matter
become in John. 40) Mary Magdalene and Mary the (mother ?) of while Mary Magdalene and Mary the Joses see Jesus buried (47) (mother?) of James with Salome bring the spices (xvi." Since Mary the mother of Jesus is here not mentioned at all." Here the mother of James and Joses is a crux for the orthodox.
ch. with occasional variations. Christ and Krishna. In Mark. while they were commonly reckoned as three. matters are further complicated. notably in the temple at Delphi. but at the tomb. and nothing whatever has been said as to her dying previously.
as mourners "
. In Matt.
. or Fates. and as such substituted for one of them. equally with the Maries. we may turn with some degree of confidence to the solution of an ancient ritual usage.THE MYTHIC MAEIES
. In Luke. 218-23 and Pagan Christs. where (xix. who. we have the two latter Maries and Joanna.
1. It is not impossible that the two and three Maries were suggested by the Moirai.
hypothesis be.

Martha.302
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
.
might a Maria (a tradition from a similar ancient Goddess-cult) weep over the image of the Crucified One.
Mary Magdalene. or disbelieved. The finding of the body by a woman or women. and figures with her in the mourning scene of the ostensibly another variant of burial and resurrection of Lazarus And in the Gnostic Pistis the primary " two Maries " motive. myth for his artistic purposes.
The
rational inference
is
interpolator
who made Paul speak
of Jesus as
that even the late having appeared to
hundred at once. so in
the early Jesuist mystery-drama. where the "other Mary" is found in the divine society 2 We are wholly with Mary the mother. who with
" the other
either the risen
.
Ed. introduces her as the first of three Maries who stand by the cross." which the Hebrew prophet denounced centuries before. though there would
—
doubtless be local variations. there
1
is
at first sight
something
2
of a
crux in the legend
13. and which. though narrative gospels were already in existence.
§ 3.
such as belonged to all the pagan worships of a slain Saviour-God as in the usage of the " women weeping for Tammuz.
all.
Ezekiel
viii. Mead. in the face of
the mythic data. the Magdalene story.
. in any case. elsewhere as here speaking of Jesus' mother without naming her. that there was
Mary " thought she saw Lord or the angel announcing the Lord's resurrecEenan. perhaps against a reluctance of
many
to give the
God an
earthly mother at
cultus.
but
five
critical caprice. notes that Paul says nothing about This is the women and he implies a touch of apostolic misogyny. figuring as his devoted disciple till the fourth gospel.
Christism copies at several points. as in the different Christian versions. accepting the tion. was equally part of the cults of Osiris and Attis. 14.
. Martha likewise intervenes.
The Myth of Joseph. Sophia. pp. 120.
Thereafter. which excluded the lover-motive.
Alike from the point of view of the mythologist and from that of
the believer. 60.
To
a
surmise. as
all
way obviously we shall see. either had not yet met with. which has no Birth Story. which.
the myth-cycle rounded
itself for
the Christian
In the fourth gospel the " other Mary " is placed beside a sister. 1 And even as the Goddess wept annually over the image of the beloved Attis or Adonis or Osiris. figuring first as consort or lover and later as mother. is a mere defiance of all critical tests.
And
the crowd of
women
myth
followers
of
is
in a general
precedented in the
Dionysos. on the plane of myth.

" says 1 one scholar. so far as we know. Luke xvii. But it so happened that the Palestinian tradition demanded a Messias Ben Joseph a descendant of the mythic patriarch as well as a Messias Ben David. the grafting-on of the myth of the supernatural conception could have happened all the same. Principal Drumrnond (The Jeivish Messiah. " son " of the For this hero-king.
All the while. who were always eager to raise the tribe of Joseph at the expense of Judah. "It is not likely. Fragments of a Samaritan Targum.
:
1 Nutt. there
is
a decisive solution in terms
of
mythology. will assemble the ten tribes in Galilee.
of the early Judaic myth-makers. and that the virgin-birth-myth was merely superimposed on the
really the father at
all. 2 John iv.!
THE MYTH OF JOSEPH
which gives the
303
" Virgin " a husband. p. albeit only to occasion the assurance that he is not
Thus he does not strengthen the claim of and there is no ostensible ground for his the mother's virginity. however. which suggests a partial revival of the ancient adoration of the God Joseph as well as that of the God Daoud. But it suffices us that the myth had a general Jewish currency. 97). and lead them to Jerusalem. like Cyrus.
facts." 2 The fourth gospel shows the occurrence of Samaritan contacts with the Jesuist cult and the book of Acts assumes that it was 3 There were thus spread equally through Samaria and Judaea. ch. 1874. p.
. obviously genuine biography and even the naturalist might be so led to surmise that " the " Gospel Jesus had had a known parentage. 357) agrees with Gfrorer that the doctrine is very unlikely to have been preChristian. Had Joseph figured to start with as the father of Jesus. though it may have been a tribal matter. himself clothed about with myth. i. Cp.
evidently. Bk. iv (ed. 1840. xxii. Cp. that being after all only a new and quasi-pagan form of the common Hebraic myth of the birth of a sanctified child to aged parents. But the mythical father appears. 1. etc. purpose were framed the two mythic genealogies. Thus we are asked to believe that the Jews set up the tradition in order to conform their Messianic doctrine to the Christian narrative 3 Acts viii. Apologists might hereupon argue that the detail is thus invention. Milman. We are not concerned here with the origin of the former doctrine. 69. 1877. The Hebraist just cited summarizes the doctrine on the subject as follows " Messiah the Son of Joseph will come before Messiah the Son of David. " that the idea of a Messiah the son of Joseph would have its origin anywhere but among the Samaritans. 5. simultaneously with the mythic mother.
. ch. Messiah as Ben David. i. History of Christianity. 11. introd. but will at last perish in battle against Gog and
The
first
preoccupation
was
to present the
—
—
. sufficient grounds for adopting the favourite Samaritan myth.

Short and Easy 127-130. then. Messiah being expected under two names. and Pesikta.
c. edit 15e. overlooks the circumstance that in two Talmudic passages the Messiah Ben David is identified with the Messiah Ben Joseph. 4. however. the Egyptians held that all things came from Saturn (or a
1 Nutt. donne a reflechir " (Vie de J&sus. and Luke xx. 74. pp. but in terms of the
precedent.
Method with
the Jews. shows
fol. along with that of the leading of
the Carpenter
(c. 1884. Grounds for the symbolism in question may be found in Plutarch's statement 5 that in the forecourt of the temple of a Goddess at Sais there were sculptured a child. an old man. c. as he is styled 2 in one case.
In the sacred procession of
of
as described
by Apuleius
in
his Metamorphoses.
1." was
suggested by old religious ceremonial. not
only in the interest of the Virgin-myth. 4
The myth of Joseph. he would naturally figure as an elderly man. i. Mark xii. note).
304
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
for the sins of
1
Magog
Jeroboam.
the laden ass by Joseph in the journey of the "holy family. 41-46. Ben Ephraim.
2
Tract. 35-36. duplicated in Matt. as cited. dans le Talmud. and this is the view of Christian tradition. has the note: "Le nom de Ben Joseph. or. arose as a real accessory to the cult.
. 4 Renan. Horce Hebraicce : in Matt. Zohar Chadash." This. 62. who has so many glimpses that come to nothing because of his lawless method. 6 Further. quoted by Belation of the Jewish Christians to the Jews. 1. ed. Lightf oot. pp.
and
O. qui. p.
F. xxii.
5 I. 45. Once introduced. But here again there is a presumption that the detail.
6
Id.
He
is
accordingly represented in the apocryphal History of Joseph
(cc. p. Such a concept might of course very well arise from the simple wish to insist on the point that Joseph was not the real father of Jesus. 7) and in the Gospel of the Birth of Mary though not in those of the canon. 70. H. The obvious motive for this identificaThe tion would be as natural to Jesuists as to orthodox Judaists.
It is sufficiently
unlikely that the great Isiac cult would adopt such a detail by
of representing
way
an episode originating in a recent system. 52. Succa.. adopted in the
Hebrew
myth
of the parentage of
John the Baptist. 1812. who interpolated the gospels for their special purpose. 32. But he goes no further. a claimant with either title might be met by denial on the score that he had not the right descent. one
the
figures is that of a feeble old
man
leading an ass. 8 Tbe passage that there was an anti-Davidic (possibly Samaritan) group of Jesuists. 2. 41-44. designe l'un des Messies. 37-38. fol. and some animal figures. fol. To make the Son of David a Son of Joseph by the plan of giving him an actual father of the latter name was a device thoroughly on the plane of the popular psychology of that age
since the Davidists
stipulation
3
could point out to the Josephists that their
fulfilled in
was now
a
manner which showed them
to
have misunderstood their prophecy.
Isis. 8). 59. the two former standing simply for the beginning and the ending of life. Cp. Leslie. as a very old man. Reichardt.

Jesus " the son of the Demiourgos
". we note that. the other hand. which is fully set forth in the sculptures on the wall of
in
several
. the cross symbol of life. we are left to surmise that some lost myth. and the
we have
first
Goddess Hathor take the queen's hands and hold to her mouth the crux ansata. no less than the name Mary. without a knowledge of which we cannot complete our interpretation. however.
2
There
the Annunciation to the maiden queen Mautmes. 52. 11) occurs the form architector . The word used in the canonical gospels. The detail.. and usually in the apocryphal.. 2nd ed. tr. and in Pseudo-Matthew (c. Belig. the Christian system is a patchwork of a hundred suggestions drawn from pagan art and ritual usage. Handbook of Egyp. and
It is frequently
again to be put forward in
may or may not have been transferred In any case. 161 sq.
and
to literalize this into " the
of early Christian
son
of the carpenter "
would be on the ordinary line
mythopoiesis. that the
once Time and the Nile. 18-19. Kneph.\ Errnan. pp. 32. Eng. 1897. is tehton . that she will bear a son. pp. pp. and could apply alike to an architect or a carpenter. 175-6 Renouf p. Egyptians. of the Anc. Some anti. 10) Joseph is said to do house-building.
1
Id. and his adoration by deities or priests. tr. Eng. thus supernaturally impregnating her.
underlay the whole. In the next scene the Holy Spirit. but in the Latin form of the Gospel of Thomas (c. Cp.
the apocryphal gospels.
X
. 37. On seen and shall see throughout this investigation.
2 Egyptian Mythology.
is
explained as mythically motived.
.
This obvious introduction to the supernatural birth is anticipated pagan legends but the most precise parallel is the Egyptian ritual usage or standing myth in regard to the birth of the kings.
the temple of Luxor.
305
1
who
signified at
and was always figured as aged.
§ 4. by the ibis-headed Thoth. the probable basis is the Gnostic view of the Jewish God as a Demiourgos or subordinate Creator-God." name " Joseph " figures in the final scenes in the person of Joseph of Arimathea. reproduced and elucidated by Sharpe. Wiedemann. Logos and Messenger of the Gods. c.
the
When.
The Annunciation. given in only two of the canonical gospels. as we have
human
father of
the
God-Man was
a carpenter.Judaic Gnostic sect might well call
thence to the canonical. This was part of the syste3 a process which sometimes matic deification of the Egyptian kings
.
THE ANNUNCIATION
similar Egyptian God). In another scene is represented the birth of the babe.
3
Hibbert Lectures. Demiourgos means an artisan of any kind. Belig. 162-4.

163.
3
Epist. bk. Herakles.
—
1 In an inscription in honour of Ramses II and III.
mother was the spouse
of the great
fore
the king's father.
. Hermes too. the Logos and Messenger or Mediator. 42 x. the story of the birth of the God-Child in a stable
as
And. 23 iii.
. 4 who was identical with Tammuz. There can be little doubt that the cave shown as the God's birth-place at Bethlehem had been from time immemorial a place of worship in the cult of Tammuz. 2. ii. . and similarly
God and Tammuz.
.
2
4
5 6
See above. being
its
." In view of these variations of God-names. Mary and Jesus that in short Maria = Myrrha.
§ 5. Christ and Krishna. pp.
Forming as
it
does part of the late fabulous introduction to the
is
third gospel.
x.
.
all
the great cult of Mithra. 32. as we have seen. Hermes. Pausanias. however. iii. Homeridian Hymn to Hermes Apollodorus. 191-205. we take the " canonical " story of the inn-stable or the " apocryphal
become an accepted Christian tradition. 25 vii. Sacred caves were about as common as temples in Greece and Apollo.
may
be taken as certain
represented to be born on
what we now call Christmas Day. would be figured as cave-born. Cybele.
—
.
included their being raised to the position of the third person in
the prevailing Trinity
and
1
it
involved the doctrine that the king's
God Amun-ra. as thy father I have begotten thee. 5 But above Demeter. and that Jesus was a name of Adonis. and of the close similarities of so many of the ancient cults and on the hypothesis that the mythical Joshua. impregnating thy venerable mother. Hibbert Lectures. the Mediator.
. whether obviously unhistorical as the rest of that narrative. the God says to the king " I am Renouf. 58. 15. was an early Hebrew deity. and Poseidon were alike worshipped in them. was born of Maia in a cave 6 and. 25 viii.
made
it
a cave pre-eminently
the place for worshipping
that he.
.
ad Paulinum. 36. or Dodo. pp."
306
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
. son of Miriam. which has
clearly
we have
. as it actually was in the time of 3 and as the quasi-historic David bore the name of the SunJerome God Daoud.
The Cave and Stable Birth."
:
cited. p. 56-57. it may be that one form of the Tammuz cult in pre-Christian times was a worship of a Mother and Child. he was represented in vasepainting as there lying cradled. Sayce. surrounded by cows either those of
.
.
story of the cave. A little had to be left out but there was small need to invent anything new. it was not improbably on that account that Bethlehem was traditionally " the city of David. who was thereThus the post-Pauline creed-makers of Alexandria had well-tried myth material lying ready to their hands in the ancient Egyptian system. an ill-disguised adaptation of a widespread pagan 2 myth.

to
3
the
4 It may be worth noting that so late as the middle of the seventeenth century this symbol survived in Protestant England.
1
and the conception
192-3. belongs to an extremely The stable-shed.
adding the shepherds. 202.
sculpture. like the Goddess.
The
stable motive. the term used in Luke. at the
Virgo.
6
In this case the word is not liknon but phatyii.
Selden. son
constellation
of the Virgin Isis. by Hermes to the temple. the
5
"manger"
4
is
just the long basket or lihnon of the
is
Greek God-children. .
Id.
tian evidence
A
similar ritual. Nothing in hierology is more certain than that the Christian story of the birth of Jesus is a mere adaptation of such ancient pagan materials.
sculptures. p. which as we have just seen was paralleled in the Egyptian birthand the " ox ritual. pp. This was the given in the ancient astronomy to the nebula of the constellation Cancer (Ass and Foal)—a further connection of the birth-myth with astronomy. of
the temple where dwelt the
whom
the former. The process of myth-manufacturing can be seen going on in* the gospels themselves. In the Catacomb
. in shape
See above.
Id.
name
.
was represented annually
of
as born
at the winter solstice. Luke
bull. 194. The cow myth was widely spread. "is in
195. and so represented in art and of the divine child Ion. which appears in the Catacomb
or those of
it
was probably pre-historic in the birth-ritual of Krishnaism. That is the exact in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
THE CAVE AND STABLE BIETH
the cow-stealing
307
myth
founded. pp. . 193.
at that
The Chronicon Paschale represents that even
. but long anticipated in the myths of 2 So again with the " child wrapped the births of Apollo and Buddha. See refs. p. has every sign of being originally a ritual usage and ass " of Christian legend in all probability had the same origin as had the legend of the bending palm-tree as given in the Koran a legend set forth in a Catacomb sculpture. cradled. "The coffin of our Christmas pies. and given with a difference in an apocryphal gospel.
Chkistmas.
art." by the Christians from Mithraism. above.
creche). and carried 3 thence. too. Christ and Krishna. who was carried in his manger-basket in ritual-procession.
some rite on which that myth was would seem." says
imitation of the cratch"
(i.
established
by Chrisperiod the
as having flourished under the Ptolemies in Egypt..
ancient mythology.e. 7 By a ray of light— an idea reproduced in pictorial treatment of the myth of the Virgin Mary.
customary adoration of a virgin-born child lying in a manger 6 was an ancient mystery and we know from other sources that the Sun-
God Horos.
1
and would seem even from these very sculptures to have been borrowed The adoration of the " Magi. 5 Above.
Table Talk. who is laid by his mother in his swaddling clothes and basket cradle in the cave of her nuptials.
2
of
Elizabeth." description of the Babe-God Hermes in Grecian song and sculpture and equally of the Babe-God Dionysos.—
. note 1. p. in
moment
the appearance of the
and
sacred cow was held to be 7 supernaturally impregnated.
long. 188.

It seems to have been on the 25th December that the Phoenician God 4 It was on Melkarth woke from his winter sleep in his sacred cave. and now called were solar.
308
THE GOSPEL MYTHS
of the other versions. or Chisleu) that Antiochus Epiphanes the 25th December (Casleu caused sacrifice to be offered on an " idol altar " placed on the altar
Epiphany. thus connecting it with the vernal equinox rather than
the winter solstice. alten Persiens. soon after the birth legend took Chris. these dates or at the vernal varied in terms of the different ideas as to when the year began and the Christian choice would be determined by the prevailing usage near the Christian centres.
That
or on
this must have been placed either on the 25th December. Christian Antiquities.
apocryphal gospels add
still
The shepherds came from the same pre-historic source as the rest. while others placed it at 25th greater part of the Eastern Church for centuries
May
made
. 174. save among the
country-people. Grecian.. who placed the 2 that is.
and the
the date
6th January
day assigned to the Baptism. vii.
tian shape. Teutonic. p.
Justi. Christ and Krishna. some other solar date. indeed. 20. 1853.
Several sects. 5 Mace. and they are more or less implied in that of Hermes. 280-2.
.
3
*
c.
1
—the
All
alike
—
of
God". The cave.
—
become
as powerful as these could
it
thus openly outface them. Phoenician. who on the day of
his birth stole the cloud
cows
of Apollo.
2 Diogenes Laertius. 2.
i.
§ 6. 1879. Geschichte cles
54-59. 93. Plato. Only when Christism had Persian. and were chosen on the same principle as had been acted on by the Platonists.
and God
of shepherds.
In Begem Solem. is simply
the world. ed.
and the late recognition of that date by the is obvious Church was simply due to the notorious fact of its having been the birthday of the Sun-God in half a dozen other religions Egyptian. As Julian has explained. long persisted in fixing the day on the 24th or 25th of April.
5
and from what we know
of the persistent polytheistic
tendencies of the Palestinians at that and earlier stages of their history we may infer that the birthday of the Sun-God was a well-
known
period
date for
it
them
for a
as for other nations.
i
Bingham. But even in Palestine the day chosen had long been a sacred one outside the prevailing cult. either at Christmas master's birthday on that of Apollo equinox. himself a divine shepherd. See above. 176. according to Justi. as the
machinery
more. They belong to the myths of Cyrus and Krishna. pp. though after the
Maccabean
would
time be
little
heard of in Jewry. notes.
The Birthday.

THE MASSACBE OF THE INNOCENTS
§

309

7.

The Massacre of

the Innocents.

this story,

on the unhistorical character of which appears only in the late preface to the first gospel, being absent even from the elaborate narrative of the third, where It is the element of ritual is so obvious in the first two chapters.
It is hardly necessary to dwell

simply a detail in the universal myth of the attempted slaying of 1 the Child- Sun-God, the disappearance of the stars at morning suggesting a massacre from which the Sun-Child escapes and we see it already in the legend of Moses, which is either based on or cognate with an Egyptian myth. In the second century Suetonius
;

gives a variant of the
of Augustus.
2

myth

as accepted history concerning the birth

myth

goes to

But all the available evidence in regard to the Krishna show that the massacre motive already existed in Indian
era.

mythology long before the Christian

Note on the Moses Myth.
I have been challenged for saying that the story of Moses and the floating basket is a variant of the myth of Horos and the floating But this seems sufficiently proved by the island (Herod, ii, 156). fact that in the reign of Eamses II, according to the monuments, there was a place in Middle Egypt which bore the name I-en-Moshe, That is the primary meaning Brugsch, who "the island of Hoses." proclaims the fact (Egypt under the Pharaohs, Eng. tr. 1st ed. ii, 117), It is suggests that it can also mean " the river-bank of Moses." very obvious, however, that the Egyptians would not have named a place by a real incident in the life of a successful enemy, as Moses Name and story are alike mythological, is represented in Exodus.
:

and pre-Hebraic, though possibly Semitic. The Assyrian myth of Sargon, which is indeed very close to the Hebrew, may be the oldest form of all but the very fact that the Hebrews located their story in Egypt shows that they knew it to have a home there in some fashion. The name Moses, whether it mean " the water-child " (so Deutsch) or " the hero" (Sayce, Hib. Lect. p. 46), was in all likelihood an epithet of Horos. The basket, in the later form, was doubtless an adaptation from the ^ritual of the basket-borne GodIn Diodorus Siculus (i, 25) Child, as was the birth story of Jesus. the myth runs that Isis found Horos dead " on the water," and brought him to life again and this is borne out by the Book of the Dead (ch. 113 Budge's ed. p. 178) but even in that form the clue And there are yet other to the Moses birth-myth is obvious. Egyptian connections for the Moses-saga since the Egyptians had a myth of Thoth (their Logos) having slain Argus (as did Hermes)
; ; :

;

;

1

Above, pp.

183-5.

2

Octavius,

c. 94.

;

310 and having had

THE GOSPEL MYTHS
to fly for
it

to Egypt,

where he gave laws and learn-

ing to the Egyptians. Yet, curiously enough, this myth probably means that the Sun-God, who has in the other story escaped the " massacre of the innocents " (the morning stars), now plays the slayer on his own account, since the slaying of many-eyed Argus probably means the extinction of the stars by the morning sun (cp. Emeric-David, Introduction, end). Another "Hermes" was son of Nilus, and his name was sacred (Cicero, De Nat. Deor. iii, 22 cp. 16). The story of the floating-child, finally, becomes part of the lore of Greece. In the myth of Apollo, the Babe-God and his sister Artemis are secured in floating islands (Arnobius, i, 36), or otherwise Delos floats (Pliny, Hist. Nat. ii, 89; iv, 22; Macrob. Sat. i, 7 Callimachus, Hymn to Delos, 213 Pindar, Frag, cited by Miiller, Dorians, Eng. tr. i, 332; Lucian, Deor. Dialog., On Delos).
; ;

§ 8.
1

The Boy Jesus in

the Temple.

Strauss has pointed to the obvious untrust worthiness of the story of the boy Jesus, at the age of twelve, being lost by his parents

and then found by his wisdom.
a proof of
stories of
its

in the temple,
It is

among

the doctors, astonishing

them

found in Luke only. As against those critics who see in the simplicity and non-miraculous character of the story
genuineness, Strauss points to the extra- Scriptural

his father's house at twelve to play the part of an inspired teacher, and of Samuel beginning to prophesy at that age. It was in fact an ordinary Jewish- myth-motive. But

Moses leaving

Strauss has omitted to notice Pagan parallels, one of which supplies the probable source of the first part of the gospel story the losing of the child.